Extensible Modeling and Simulation Framework (XMSF) Opportunities for Web-Based Modeling and Simulation

Technical Opportunities Workshop Whitepaper, 14 June 2002Purpose: As the Department of Defense (DoD) is engaged in both warfighting and institutional transformation for the new millennium, DoD Modeling & Simulation (M&S) also needs to identify and adopt transformational technologies which provide direct tactical relevance to warfighters. Because the only software systems that composably scale to worldwide scope utilize the World Wide Web, it is evident that an extensible Web-based framework shows great promise to scale up the capabilities of M&S systems to meet the needs of training, analysis, acquisition, and the operational warfighter. By embracing commercial web technologies as a shared-communications platform and a ubiquitous-delivery framework, DoD M&S can fully leverage mainstream practices for enterprise-wide software development

The extensible run-time infrastructure (XRTI) : an experimental implementation of proposed improvements to the high level architecture

The establishment of a large-scale network of persistent shared virtual worlds depends on the presence of a robust standard for communicating state information between the applications that host and provide access to those worlds. The High Level Architecture (HLA) can serve as the basis for such a standard, but not before several of its shortcomings are resolved. First, it must be made easier to use. Second, it must specify a standardizable message protocol. Third, it must support dynamic object model extension and composition. Finally, its authors must provide an open-source, freely redistributable run-time infrastructure. This thesis documents the creation of the Extensible Run-Time Infrastructure (XRTI), an experimental platform that addresses the above requirements while retaining full backwards compatibility with the existing HLA standard. To increase ease-of-use, the XRTI provides a proxy compiler that generates customized sets of Java source files based on the contents of arbitrary Federation Object Model Document Data (FDDs). To encourage message protocol standardization, the XRTI uses a novel bootstrapping methodology to define its low-level interactions in terms of an HLA object model. The XRTI supports the dynamic composition and extension of such object models through its Reflection Object Model (ROM), and this thesis demonstrates that ability by depicting the integration of the XRTI into NPSNET-V, a dynamically extensible platform for virtual environment applications.http://archive.org/details/theextensiblerun109456187Naval Postgraduate School author (civilian)

A unified component framework for dynamically extensible virtual environments

CVE '02, September 30 - October 2, 2002, Bonn, Germany.If large-scale shared virtual worlds are to be established on the Internet, they must be based on technologies that allow them to adapt, scale, and evolve continuously -that is, without their being taken offline. In the course of designing NPSNET-V, an architecture intended to satisfy these criteria through componentbased dynamic extensibility, the authors recognized the need for a consistent, unified component framework. This framework, which they implemented in Java, allows one to construct applications as component hierarchies rooted at an invariant microkernel. A simple extensible interface layer and event model allow components to communicate with one another, and an XML configuration and serialization mechanism permits applications to store and transmit component and application state in a versatile standardized format. After an initial bootstrapping process, one may add, remove, and upgrade components at run time, and one may introduce newly loaded Java code anywhere in the application hierarchy at any time. The complications posed by this reconfigurability and the hierarchical nature of NPSNET-V applications led the authors to develop a consistent design strategy, which they based largely on several common design patterns. The most critical design pattern that they used was the Model-View-Controller pattern, which forms the basis of the NPSNET-V entity model

The Extensible Run-Time Infrastructure (XRTI): An Emerging Middleware Platform for Interoperable Networked Virtual Environments

etwork of interoperable shared virtual worlds. To increase the HLA's ease-of-use, the XRTI includes a proxy compiler that converts the FOMs stored in arbitrary FOM Document Data (FDDs) into sets of fully documented Java^TM proxy classes with consistent and intuitive type-safe interfaces. To ease the process of defining a common RTI message protocol, the XRTI employs a novel bootstrapping technique to define its messages in terms of HLA constructs and encodings. To allow applications to introduce new kinds of objects and interactions into active worlds, the XRTI uses its Reflection Object Model (ROM) to represent each world's FOM as a set of manipulable shared objects, and introduces the mergeFDD method as a means of dynamically extending the FOM. This extension capability is particularly important for applications such as those based on NPSNET-V, a component-based platform for dynamically extensible virtual environments. A set of XRTI controller modules allows NPSNET-V applications t

Requirements for Large-Scale Networked Virtual Environments

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Telecommunications ConTel 2003, Zagreb, Croatia, 11-13 June 2003, pp. 353-358.Accepted/Published Conference Pape

Game Engines for Use in Context Aware Research

One of the biggest difficulties to overcome in creating and testing context aware applications is the interface with the real world. This includes both inputting data from the real world into a symbolic format and outputting the data to the user in a useful fashion. In this poster, we describe how we used a commercial game engine to overcome these difficulties and take the place of the real world

P-51 An Open Source Game Engine for Naval Education and Training

M-I-P-

Security of Runtime Extensible Virtual Environments

Distributed, real-time virtual environment (VE) architectures have traditionally been driven by quality of service (QOS) considerations, with little or no concern paid to security issues. With recent advancements in functionality, computing power and network bandwidth it has become practical to use VEs in sensitive areas such as product development with proprietary information and visualization of classified information. Consequently, previously ignored aspects of security need to be made a primary concern at the outset of designing a VE. In this paper we explore security concerns associated with a subtype of VEs: Runtime Extensible VEs (RTEVEs). We introduce a taxonomy of security issues, derived from a case study of NPSNET-V, with the goal of using this taxonomy to guide the formulation of security policy, requirements, and architectures for RTEVEs

Extensible Modeling and Simulation Framework (XMSF) challenges for web-based modeling and simulation

Findings and recommendations report: Technical Challenges Workshop, Strategic Opportunities Symposium 22 October 2002The Department of Defense (DoD) is engaged in warfighting and institutional transformation for the new millennium. In parallel, DoD Modeling & Simulation (M&S) needs to identify and adopt transformational technologies providing direct tactical relevance to warfighters. The only software systems that composably scale to worldwide scope utilize World Wide Web technologies. Therefore, it is evident that an extensible web-based framework offers great promise to scale up the capabilities of M&S systems to meet the needs of training, analysis, acquisition, and the operational warfighter. By embracing commercial web technologies as a shared-communications platform and a ubiquitous-delivery framework, DoD M&S can fully leverage mainstream practices for enterprise-wide software development