Experiences in Simplifying Distributed Simulation: the HLA Development Kit Framework

Distributed simulation represents a solid discipline and an effective approach for handling the increasing complexity in theanalysis and design of modern Systems and Systems of Systems (SoSs). The IEEE 1516-2010 – High-Level Architecture(HLA) is one of the most mature and popular standards for distributed simulation, and it is increasingly exploited in a greatvariety of application domains, ranging from aerospace to energy, due to its capabilities to enable the interoperability andreusability of distributed simulation components. However, the development of fully fledged simulation models, based on theIEEE 1516-2010 standard, is still a challenging task and requires considerable development effort that often results not only inan increase in development time but also in low reliability. In this context, the paper presents the HLA Development Kitframework, a general-purpose, domain-independent software framework that aims to ease the development of HLA-basedsimulations by letting the developers to focus on the specific aspects of their simulation rather than dealing with the commonHLA functionalities. Moreover, the so obtained simulation code is independent of any specific HLA platform, thus enabling itsdeployment and execution on any desired implementation of the HLA standard provided it is written in Java. The effectivenessof the proposed framework is shown in the context of the Simulation Exploration Experience (SEE), a project organized bythe Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) and led by NASA that involves several U.S. and EuropeanInstitutions