A communications system's function in a training environment is twofold. It must provide the necessary audio links among the students and instructors, and it must model the characteristics of real world devices. This has typically resulted in considerable amounts of hardware dedicated to specific processing tasks and an unwieldy dedicated line distribution system. A few companies have developed digital audio systems to take advantage of a time division multiplexed distribution system and to perform the primary mixing function. A natural extension of this is complete digital processing. The relatively new, single chip, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) provide a cost effective means to implement signal processing algorithms and achieve the audio processing necessary to model a variety of communication devices.

This paper presents a communication system architecture that uses this new technology to cost effectively meet the processing and performance requirements encountered in the training and simulation environment. Prototype results have indicated a hardware reduction ratio on the order of 10 to 1 circuit boards for a typical (four person) operational flight trainer.