National Cyber Range (NCR) automated test tools: Implications and application to network-centric support tools

Network Centric System operation is the core of our military environment today. While much research and development has been accomplished in technology to support creating and exploiting these increasing complex, interdependent systems, testing technology has not kept pace with the rate of technology advancement. As our dependence on network centric operation grows, the limitations of our ability to rapidly and accurately test a distributed information system is a key challenge to mission readiness. The National Cyber Range (NCR) is a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) program that is currently focusing on addressing the challenge of testing cyber technologies. The NCR will be a scalable (to thousands of nodes), secure, reconfigurable, high fidelity test range to rapidly assess emerging cyber technology. Key innovations include automation for test range configuration and validation, test instrumentation, and test data analysis and a scientific testing methodology for large scale cyber systems. The vision of the NCR program is to create a general purpose test range that can be quickly repurposed to conduct evaluations of cyber technology or architectures in much the same way that the general purpose automated test systems like USN CASS are used to support the test and diagnostics of a wide range of electronic, electro-optical and electro-mechanical devices. NCR is advancing the mission of automated test beyond the production test and maintenance of fielded weapon systems or equipment, however, by extending the advantages of automated test to the front end of the product lifecycle, where it has been absent but desperately needed as a design aid. The automated cyber range will be used to support experimentation, evaluate early prototypes and directly conduct design verification testing. This paper will discuss the innovations in test automation in NCR, the potential adaptation of the NCR technology to network-centric system support systems and the implication to mission readiness.