Integrated Environment Management for Information Operations Testbeds

Network testbeds are indispensable for developing and testing information operations (IO) technologies. Lincoln Laboratory has been developing LARIAT to support IO test design, development, and execution with high-fidelity user simulations. As LARIAT becomes more advanced, enabling larger and more realistic and complex tests, effective management software has proven essential. In this paper, we present the Director, a graphical user interface that enables experimenters to quickly define, control, and monitor reliable IO tests on a LARIAT testbed. We describe how the interface simplifies these key elements of testbed operation by providing the experimenter with an appropriate system abstraction, support for basic and advanced usage, scalable performance and visualization in large networks, and interpretable and correct feedback.