A Component Architecture for Federate Development

The SIMULTAAN Simulator Architecture (SSA) is the product of a joint project of Dutch Simulation Industry and Research Institutes. The SSA is based on the High Level Architecture (HLA) to promote interoperability and reusability on several levels. On the level of Federations and Federates, the SSA is fully compatible with HLA. As an extension to HLA, the SSA defines a new level, that of the Federate Component. SIMULTAAN Federates are composed of Components (e.g. sensors, dynamic model, visual) in order to increase the potential for re-use. Component re-use is encouraged by the SIMULTAAN Object repository (SOR), where the SIMULTAAN partners can store and retrieve Components and/or Federates.
SSA Federates communicate via a data-exchange middle-ware layer, called the Run-time Communication Infrastructure (RCI). The RCI is currently based on the HLA RTI, but allows other standards such as DIS. The innovative approach of SSA is that the RCI extends the Federate interoperability concepts of HLA by providing data-exchange between SSA Components in a similar way. With this approach the RCI abstracts Components from the intra-SSA Federate protocol and network hardware.
SIMULTAAN Federation execution is coordinated by a two-part system: the Federate Manager and the Scenario Manager. The Federate Manager is an SSA Component which controls the other Components within the Federate and represents the Federate to the Federation. The Scenario Manager is an SSA Federate which controls the behaviour of the Federates within the Federation by issuing commands to the Federate Managers.
A SIMULTAAN Federation is defined by its Federation Object Model (FOM), which is equal to the HLA FOM. The HLA Simulator Object Model (SOM) describes each SSA Federate in the Federation. Components are described by their SSA Component Object Models (COM’s). A particular SSA Federate is defined by an aggregate of COM’s, the SSA Simulator Component Object Model (SCOM).