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M I L S Y M B O L A N D V M F M E S S A G E S

P R E S E N T E D B Y M Å N S B E C K M A N 2 8 J U L 2 0 1 6 F O R J S P / S S M C

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A G E N D A

• Introduction

• Update about milsymbol

• How to build an Open Source Blue Force Tracker

• Variable Message Format (VMF)

• Questions

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M Å N S B E C K M A N

All opinions expressed in this presentation are my own and do not represent my employer or the

Swedish Armed Forces

All information in this presentation is derived from open sources

M Å N S B E C K M A N

• Master of Science in Civil Engineering

• Major in the Swedish Armed Forces reserves

• Works as an IT-consultant with defense and security customers

• Two deployments to Afghanistan and one to Mali

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– M A J O R D E F E N S E C O M PA N Y

About using milsymbol: “[..] but it should be a no brainer, yours is definitely

the best one out there”

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M I L S Y M B O L U P D AT E

• Current status

• Lots of minor fixes

• Draft implementation of APP6-(D) (Not yet released)

• Support for Canvas draw instructions makes it easier to use with Open Layers and Cesium

• Planned development

• Implement speed leader

• Improve speed of Canvas rendering

F U T U R E S U P P O R T F O R A P P 6 - ( D )

M I L S Y M B O L I N C E S I U M . J S

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B L U E F O R C E T R A C K E RH O W T O B U I L D A N O P E N S O U R C E

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I N I T I A L I D E A

• Keep it simple

• Just friendly force information

• Web technology for desktop and mobile (and backend)

• Low bandwidth

• Push technology

• Compact transmission format

• Node.js backend

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• Open Source JavaScript based server backend (nodejs.org)

• Used by Uber, Netflix, PayPal and others

• Dependable long-polling capabilities

• Easy to use for push with socket.io

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T R A N S M I S S I O N F O R M AT

• MIP (Multilateral Interoperability Programme)

• NFFI (Nato Friendly Force Information)

• MTF (Message Text Format)

• NVG (Nato Vector Graphics)

• VMF (Variable Message Format)

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T R A N S M I S S I O N F O R M AT

• MIP (Multilateral Interoperability Programme)

• NFFI (Nato Friendly Force Information)

• MTF (Message Text Format)

• NVG (Nato Vector Graphics)

• VMF (Variable Message Format)

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Moved to MTF FFI

Candidate 1

XML not small enough

Final candidate

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S Y S T E M A R C H I T E C T U R E

Link 11 - (Link 11B) Link 16 Link 22

Client Client Client Client

VMF VMF VMF VMF

VMF

• Minimal information storage in backend

• Same technology in backend and front end

• Several backends can communicate with each other

• VMF can easily be transmitted to/received from other systems

F I R S T P R O T O T Y P E F O R D E M OX X L S E C . C O M

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VA R I A B L E M E S S A G E F O R M AT

• Binary format (ones and zeroes)

• Variable length of the messages

• Header information MIL-STD-2045-47001D

• Unclassified available online

• Messages MIL-STD-6017

• Unclassified Limited Distribution

• Made for letter based SIDC, can it be used with number based?

L E T U S H A V E A C L O S E R L O O K A T

V M F H E A D E R

• MIL-STD-2045-47001D w/CHANGE 1

• Unclassified standard DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

• Same structure as VMF messages

• https://github.com/spatialillusions/vmf-parser

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V M F M E S S A G E S

• MIL-STD-6017

• Unclassified standardDISTRIBUTION STATEMENT C.Restricted to the federal government and its contractors.

• Minimal implementation includes three message types

• K01.1 Free Text

• K01.2 Unit Reference Query/Response Includes Unit Name and SIDC, but made for letter based SIDC not number based

• K05.1 Position Report

V M F G AT H E R I N T E L L I G E N C E

• Read everything available in open sources

• Use information from the header specification

• Aggregate information

• Make assessments based on available information

S T O R I N G O F C O O R D I N AT E S

• How to store coordinates as fixed bit unsigned integers

• Partly defined in NGA.STND.0019_2.0

• https://github.com/spatialillusions/latlng-uint

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K 0 1 . 2 U N I T R E F E R E N C E Q U E R Y /R E S P O N S E

• Made for letter based SIDC

• VMF stores letters as 7 bits, SIDC is 15 letters, that gives us 105 bits

• Number based SIDC is three 32bit integers, that gives us 96 bits

• Stings can be canceled by sending a delete character (1111111) 33292288 as a 32 bit integer is 00000001111111000000000000000000

• Current standard can be used to send both letter based and number based SIDC, but old systems can be confused by new messages

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P R O J E C T S TAT U S

• Current Status

• Working simple backend with push functionality

• Working simple client with APP6-(D) symbology

• Library for decoding/encoding VMF headers and messages in JavaScript

• Library for decoding/encoding coordinates

• Future development

• Update client to use VMF with fictitious message types

• Add possibility for interoperability with other systems

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C O N C L U S I O N S

• Interoperability between C2 systems are hard to accomplish when it is hard to get access to sample data

• It would benefit both military and civilian systems if at least the minimal implementation of VMF was made public

• It would be great if NATO had something similar to forge.mil where classified open source could be shared

• Reinventing the wheel costs a lot of money, Open Source makes it possible to reuse others ideas

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M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N

www.spatialillusions.com (Homepage)

https://github.com/spatialillusions (GitHub)

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– M Å N S B E C K M A N

To build a C2 system, you must have built a C2 system before.

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Questions?