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The advanced planning study was well received both at MITRE and ESD and it was decided to pursue a practical design to see if these ideas could be translated into a usable system. In 1968 MITRE Technical Director John H. Monahan appointed C. Eric Ellingson to head this effort and Ellingson put together a technical team to pursue these ideas. Early on it became apparent that the CASOFF architecture was sufficiently radical that a "proof of concept" activity was needed to better understand and ultimately demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of such an approach. The demonstration system used a synchronized Time Division Multiple Access architecture and incorporated position ___location as an integral part of the communications process. Because funds were extremely limited every effort was made to use already available equipment. Transmitters were surplus AN/APX-25 IFF transponders and data processing was accomplished using surplus IBM 4piTC-2 computers that were obtained from the F-111 terrain avoidance program. The unique components called the Control and Display Units (CDU) were built in the MITRE laboratory.
By 1970 an operating TDMA system had been constructed and ground stations were installed at Boston Hill in Andover MA, Millstone Hill in Groton MA, MITRE in [[Bedford, MA]] and Prospect Hill in [[Waltham, MA]]. An airborne terminal was also installed in an ESD T-29 Navigation Trainer. Tests of both the communications architecture and position ___location capability were conducted and the overall system design was shown to be practical. Note that this demonstration preceded GPS, Ethernet and the internet each of which incorporated similar principals. It is also worth noting that these experiments would not have been possible without the support of John Klotz of DOD/DDR&E.
In 1972 General Ken Russell, the AWACS System Program Office chief asked Ellingson if MITRE could support a 1973 demonstration of AWACS to key NATO personnel in Europe. The idea was to bring the AWACS data to the ground command and control centers in selected locations throughout Europe to show how AWACS could augment their existing air defense capability. Russell thought that the MITRE CASOFF demonstration system could do the job. Ellingson responded in the affirmative and immediately set about to implement the needed interfaces with the various NATO systems and equipping a KC135 aircraft that was to be used as a relay.
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