Klv2CoT Converter: KLV to CoT Converter Library Documentation

Introduction

Cursor on Target (CoT) developed by The Mitre Corporation defines XML formatted location based data for sharing situation-awareness information. The CoT XML messages provide a description of an object (what), the time an event occurs (when), and the position of an event (where). Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) usually use Datalink Local Data Set(LDS) or Universal Data Set (UDS) for their platforms.
In order to facilitate interoperability between different systems, MISB EG 0805 defines a recommended conversions from EG 0104 and EG 0601 KLV metadata tags to two basic CoT schema messages (PlatformPosition and Sensor Point-of-Interest (SPOI).
Klv2CoTConvLib library provides conversion between KLV UAS LDS/UDS MISB EG0601.4 (released 4 March 2010) specification and CoT, the XML based information. Klv2CoTConvLib processes the metadata ( passed as KLV encoded buffer or list of KLV items ) and generates the Situational Awareness COT messages. Generally, the Converter decodes the metadata found in KLV packet and generates PlatformPosition or/and Sensor Point-of-Interest message type ( depending on the mode set ).

Main features:

KLV to CoT transcoding.
MISB 0601.4 compliant metadata conversion.
MISB 0805 compliant conversion.
Local Data Set(LDS) and Universal Data Set (UDS) support.
Available as C/C++ and C# library.
C++ and C# samples.
Windows and Linux support.

Klv2CoT converter in Metadata Recorder application.

This is an example of Klv2CoT converter use in Telementry Recorder application. Application receives STANAG complient TS stream with KLV encoded metadata. In addition to metadata extraction, applicaiton provides CoT generation and streaming functionality. As some information (such as Battle Dimension, Affiliation, etc) is not present in the KLV messages, it may be added via the GUI. Application may generate Platform Position CoT message, Sensor Point of Interest CoT message, or both. In latter case, 2 messages will be generated from each KLV packet. Application is also allows information sampling, when CoT messages should be sent with some minimal time interval.

Getting started with Klv2CoT converter.

MISB EG 0805 Engineering Guideline defines the Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB) metadata items used for fields in Cursor on Target (CoT) Situational Awareness (SI) messages. This library converts Platform Position and Sensor Point of Interest (SPI) metadata into equivalent MISB-standard Key Length Value (KLV) data packets.
Klv2CoT SDK provides examples with source code to help you get started using the converter. Here is a brief example of using the Klv2CoT for some basic tasks.
Let's say that you have to trancode KLV packet available in a data buffer into CoT Platform Position and Sensor Point of Interest messages.

Add Klv2CoT.lib and make sure you have Klv2CoT.dll (libklv2cot.so for Linux) accessible by your code.
Include IKlv2CoTConv.h file.
```
        #include <IKlv2CoTConv.h>
```

Create converter instance. Set IKlv2CoTConv::LDS if your KLV data is in LDS format or IKlv2CoTConv::UDS if it is UDS.
```
        IKlv2CoTConv* pKlv2CoTConv = CreateKlv2CoTConv(IKlv2CoTConv::LDS);
```

Call Process method, passing a buffer with KLV data as input. The converter will fill xmlStrPP and xmlStrSPI strings with the generated CoT messages

        // Parse Klv buffer and fill the CoT with the encoded data
        if(pKlv2CoTConv->Process(klv_buf, len, xmlStrPP, xmlStrSPI))
        {
                // Write data to XML file.
                writeFile(pathMessage1.c_str(), xmlStrPP.c_str(), xmlStrPP.length());  
                writeFile(pathMessage2.c_str(), xmlStrSPI.c_str(), xmlStrSPI.length()) ;     
        }
        else
                cout << "Error parsing Klv buffer" << endl;

Delete converter instance.

        // Delete converter
        if(pKlv2CoTConv)
                delete pKlv2CoTConv;

For more information please see some Sample Code

IKlv2CoTConv class

Please see IKlv2CoTConv for more details.

Preferences

Cursor on Target for the UAV Domain v. 4, 2006.
DoD Information Technology Standards and Profile Registry (https://disronline.disa.mil)
MISP 4.5 - Motion Imagery Standards Profile version 4.5, dated 15 May 2008
MISB EG 0104.5 Predator UAV Universal Metadata Set, dated 14 December 2006
MISB EG 0601.4 UAS Datalink Local Metadata Set, 4 March 2010
The Developer�s Guide to Cursor on Target, August 2005.
ImpleoTV KLVlib SDK.
ImpleoTV EG0601Convlib SDK.

Glossary of Acronyms

CoT - Cursor-on-Target
EG - Engineering Guideline
EG - Engineering Guideline
FPS - Frames per Second
KLV - Key-Length-Value
MI - Motion Imagery
SI - Situational Awareness
MISP - Motion Imagery Standards Profile
RP - Recommended Practice
SMPTE - Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
UTC - Coordinated Universal Time
UUID - Universally Unique Identifier
XML - Extensible Markup Language