Distributed Simulation in Industry

Abstract

Csaba Attila Boer was born in Satu Mare, Romania, on 29 October, 1975. He completed his secondary education at K\xc3\xb6lcsey Ferenc High School, in Satu Mare, in 1994. In the same year he started his higher education at Babe\xc5\x9f-Bolyai University, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where he received his B.Sc. degree in Computer Science, in 1998, and his M.Sc. degree with major in Information Systems, specialization Designing and Implementing Complex Systems, in 1999. During these years, he obtained fellowships at the E\xc3\xb6tv\xc3\xb6s L\xc3\xb3r\xc3\xa1nd University, and at the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary within the Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS). Since 1999, he has been affiliated with the Computer Science Department, Faculty of Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. There, he worked as a \nresearcher for one year, studying the storage and retrieval of discrete event simulation models, research that resulted in three scientific articles. Between 2000 and 2004, he was associated with the same department as a Ph.D. candidate aiming to research the area of distributed simulation and its application in industry. His topic being close to the research \ncarried out at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, and the BETADE research program, he started to collaborate with researchers from these groups, getting involved in two joint practical case study projects. This \ncollaboration resulted in seven joint scientific articles, presented at various international \nconferences. Furthermore, Csaba has maintained international contacts with researchers \nfrom the distributed simulation area. He has been invited twice to Brunel University, London to give a presentation concerning the application of distributed simulation in industry. Currently, he is working as a simulation consultant atGedistribueerde simulatie wordt binnen de defensie in brede kring geaccepteerd en toegepast, maar het heeft in de industrie geen voet aan de grond gekregen. In dit proefschrift onderzoeken we de redenen voor dit fenomeen door te bestuderen wat de industrie verwacht op het terrein van de gedistribueerde simulatie. \nIn het algemeen worden in de industrie simulatiemodellen ontworpen en ontwikkeld met COTS (\xe2\x80\x9ccommercial-off-the-shelf\xe2\x80\x9d) simulatiepakketten. Echter, de bestaande architecturen voor gedistribueerde simulatie binnen defensie zijn niet gericht op het koppelen van modellen gebouwd met COTS simulatiepakketten. Om de industrie te motiveren gedistribueerde simulatie te accepteren en te gebruiken moet men derhalve ernaar streven het mogelijk te maken om modellen, die gebouwd zijn met deze pakketten, aan elkaar te koppelen zonder dat dat al te veel inspanning vereist van de modelbouwers. \nUitgaande van een onderzoek onder experts in dit domein, stellen we in dit proefschrift een pakket van eisen voor voor het ontwerp en ontwikkelen van gedistribueerde simulatiearchitecturen dat de industriegemeenschap zal motiveren om gedistribueerde simulatie te accepteren en toe te passen. Daarnaast presenteren we een lichtgewicht architectuur voor gedistribueerde simulatie die met succes toegepast is in twee industri\xc3\xable projecten, en die in grote mate voldoet aan het voorgestelde pakket van eisen.While distributed simulation is widely accepted and applied in defence, it has not gathered ground yet in industry. In this thesis we investigate the reasons behind this phenomenon by surveying the expectation of industry with respect to distributed simulation solutions. \nSimulation models in industry are mainly designed and developed in commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) simulation packages. The existing distributed simulation architectures in defence, however, do not focus on coupling models created in COTS simulation packages. Therefore, in order to motivate the industrial community to easily accept and use distributed simulation, one should strive to couple models built in these packages. Further, coupling these models should be possible without needing too much extra effort from modellers. \nIn this thesis, based on a survey with experts in domain, we propose a list of requirements for designing and developing distributed simulation architectures that would encourage the industrial community to accept and apply distributed simulation. Furthermore, we present a lightweight distributed simulation architecture which has been successfully applied in two industrial projects, and satisfies to a large extent the proposed requirements