The first JANUS Interoperability Fest - a field report

Underwater acoustic communications is a global domain in which different manufacturers produce different devices and implement different (and usually incompatible) communication protocols. The myriad of vendor-specific protocols is not conducive to collaboration amongst different industry, academia and research partners. The need for interoperability drove the efforts of NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) towards the establishment of a standard for digital underwater acoustic communications. The JANUS standard was recently published as a NATO Standardard (STANAG 4748) and has been implemented by an increasing number of vendors. To validate these implementations and ensure interoperability, CMRE organised the first JANUS Interoperability Fest in May 2018. This article details the tests performed and the main outcomes of the event. The success of this Fest led to the organisation of a second Fest in November 2019 with an increased number of participants.