The EISN Testbed for Evaluation of Network Routing and Control Techniques

The Experimental Integrated Switched Network (EISN) was set up to develop and experimentally evaluate new routing and control techniques potentially applicable in the Defense Switched Network, focusing on the new routing and preemption algorithms described in the companion paper [1]. Significant achievements in the EISN effort include establishment of a geographically distributed telecommunications testbed, featuring common channel signalling (CCS), multi-media trunking, and off-the-shelf digital switches with programmable out-board Routing/Control Processors (RCPs). Selected new algorithms have been evaluated in the form of actual implementations on the testbed. A preliminary description of the EISN testbed, its components, and its objectives was given at MILCOM '83 [2], along with earlier steady-state analysis results on the new adaptive routing algorithms. This paper focuses primarily on the EISN testbed as it is now implemented. The design philosophy and functional characteristics of the testbed are presented, and a series of routing and control experiments is described, as well as some additional experiments in voice/data integration using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for the data transfers. The routing experiments are aimed at validating the logic and the CCS protocols developed for the new routing and preemption algorithms described in the companion paper.