Transcript Agenda - MOVES Institute

Monterey California USA, 19-20 August 2002
Technical Challenges Workshop,
Extensible Modeling and
Simulation Framework (XMSF)
Don Brutzman and Michael Zyda
Naval Postgraduate School
Mark Pullen, George Mason University (GMU)
Katherine L. Morse, SAIC
Science Applications
International Corporation
An Employee-Owned Company
XMSF Technical Workshop
XMSF executive summary

Problems, motivation, strategy
Workshop organization and details
Administrative stuff
Further technical discussion
19-20 August 2002
2
Executive summary
Web-based technologies can provide an extensible
modeling and simulation architecture, to support a new
generation of interoperable applications
Simulation support is needed for operational warfighting
capabilities
XML-based architecture can provide a bridge between
emerging rehearsal/reality/replay requirements and
open/commercial Web standards
Web = best tech strategy + best business case
19-20 August 2002
3
Problems
Current approaches are not compatible with effective
use of emerging Web technologies
Military modeling & simulation has little or no apparent
impact on warfighters’ daily tactical operations
Diverse simulations do not scalably interoperate with
warfighting systems
Global systems are not yet possible without connection
to common interoperable framework

physical and logical “stovepipes” prevent this
19-20 August 2002
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Motivation
Transformational technologies are needed to scale up
defense modeling/simulation to meet real-world needs
Can we use Web technologies as common framework?

Dynamic capabilities, open standards, Web business model
provide lift to support government and commercial success

Easy use and open extensibility for developers and users,
fueling rapid growth of interoperable simulations

Bring defense modeling/simulation/tactical support into
mainstream of enterprise-wide best-business practices
19-20 August 2002
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Planning for change/quick start
Technical opportunities workshop
NPS, August 19-20 – welcome!
 MOVES Open House, August 20-22

Strategic opportunities symposium
George Mason University, September 6
 Immediately precedes SIW for good participation
 Broader feedback: right track? what else is needed?

Exemplar demonstration

I/ITSEC demos, Orlando Florida December 2-5
19-20 August 2002
6
Project strategy
Outline large-scale framework for next-generation Web-compatible
simulation interoperability
Enumerate technical components, languages, and specifications


Workshop of key researchers to refine requirements
Seek broad feedback for consensus, focus, progress
Demonstrate rapidly how these new capabilities might help



Current war effort against terrorism
Homeland defense
Science, commerce, education, etc.
Multi-year initiative for simulation using Web technologies?




Workshop and symposium produce strategy and white paper
Conceptual suite of applications demo at I/ITSEC in December
NPS, GMU and SAIC have started, shared strategies welcome
Further workshop in fall among existing programs??
19-20 August 2002
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Workshop Details
19-20 August 2002
8
Workshop strategy
1
How to solve big problems? Divide & conquer.
Three perspectives
Web technologies, XML
 Networking and Internet
 Modeling and simulation (M&S)

White paper lays out initial basic framework

please use, extend, correct, disagree
19-20 August 2002
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Workshop strategy
2
How to solve big problems? Divide & conquer.
Triage approach for all three technical areas:
What do we agree on: determine consensus
 What do we disagree on: more work needed
 What are most important directions for further work

Document workshop and symposium results

Most important outcomes may be education, direction
19-20 August 2002
10
Web/XML group:
Root 200C conference room
Moderator:
Don Brutzman, NPS

Erik Chaum NUWC
 Rob Glidden Sun
 Jack Jackson,
TRAC Monterey
 David Kwak, MITRE



19-20 August 2002
Recorders:
Steve Fouskarinis SAIC,
Curt Blais NPS
Dr. Francisco Loaiza, IDA
 Dr. Edward Sims, Vcom3D
 Dr. Chenghui Luo,
Fraunhofer CRCG
 Phil Zimmerman, DMSO
11
Internet/networking group:
Spanagel 254 conference room
Moderator:

Mark Pullen, GMU
Rusty Baldwin, AFIT
 Scott Bradner, IESG,
Harvard
 Suleyman Guleyupoglu, NRL
 Sue Numrich, DMSO
Recorders:
Don McGregor, NPS
 Dave Laflam, AMSO
 Denny Moen


Steve Carson, GSC Assoc.
 Norbert Schiffner, CRCG
 Marcelo Zuffo, University
Sao Paolo


19-20 August 2002
two last-minute drops:
Sandeep Singhal Reefedge,
Mikel Petty ODU
12
Modeling & simulation group:
Engineers’ auditorium
Moderator:

Katherine Morse, SAIC
Mike Bailey USMC TECOM
 Paul Diefenbach,
OpenWorlds
 Dr. Niki Deliman Goerger,
USA ERDC
 Alan Hudson, Yumetech

19-20 August 2002
Recorders:
Joerg Wellbrink, NPS
 Simon Goerger, NPS

Kalyan S. Perumalla,
Georgia Inst. of Technology
 Dick Puk, Intelligraphics
 Cristina Russo dos Santos,
Eurecom, University Toulon
 Dr. Andreas Tolk, ODU
 Dr. Sanjeev Trika, Intel

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Monday Agenda
0830 XMSF Technical Workshop Overview
 0930 Tasks: triage consensus on XMSF challenges
 1000 Break at auditorium
 1030 Break out, present positions 10 minutes each
 1200 Lunch break on own. Thai Hut, coffee bar,
Hermann Hall basement or Randy’s Sandwiches
 1300 Group breakouts, discussions, triage
 1500 Break at auditorium
 1700 Plenary progress quicklook: 15 minutes/group
 1900 Dinner El Palomar, $18 buffet, will have maps

19-20 August 2002
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Tuesday Agenda
0815 Working groups resume, complete contributions
 1000 Break at auditorium
 1030 Plenary results session: 20-min. group reports
 1130 Final discussion: conclusions and next steps
 1200 Workshop complete!
Lunch break on own. Thai Hut, coffee bar,
Hermann Hall basement or Randy’s Sandwiches


1300 MOVES Open House (right back here)
19-20 August 2002
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XMSF website, report
Position papers and slides available at

http://www.movesInstitute.org/xmsf
Recorders can upload during sessions, or else
send mail to Don (why not, everyone else does)
Participants can improve/amend contributions
Report revision dates: September 1 and 8
19-20 August 2002
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Position paper revisions
Feel free to reconsider points you’re making
but little need for duplication
 clarity is key
 lots of references and URLs, please

Do we want consistent formatting template?
Will provide position papers with final report.
19-20 August 2002
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Administratospheria
19-20 August 2002
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Registration
$50 needed for XMSF breaks
$150 needed for MOVES open house breaks
Rachel Davis is handling registration details.
Telephone for messages: +1.831.656.1126
Thanks one and all for cheerful professionalism!
19-20 August 2002
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Travel claims
Thanks to many of you for letting us make
reservations, despite SATO ticket hassles.
Government rates saves us a bunch of money.
Cecelia Childers will provide forms to fill out.
Please save your receipts!
Cecelia is in MOVES lab Spanagel 256, x3818

mailto:[email protected]
19-20 August 2002
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Handouts
XMSF workshop folder
MOVES open-house brochure
Web3D Consortium’s X3D SDK CDs
MOVES open-house DVD
MOVES open house highlights
Tuesday afternoon: our web-based work, reception
 Wednesday evening: demos in lab, hors d’oeuvres
 Thursday morning: AmericasArmy.com
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Further technical discussion
19-20 August 2002
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Application Domains
Discrete-event and constructive simulations
Virtual worlds and continuous simulations
Multi-agent systems
Interactive, man-in-the-loop, equipment-in-loop systems
Live and virtual entities, mixed seamlessly
Distance learning for interaction among participants

Audio and video (both needed for WAN testing anyway)

Multiformat whiteboard; recording and playback

Teaching and training compatibility via ADL SCORM

Maybe inclusion is too far a reach? Be clear what is/isn’t
19-20 August 2002
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Top-Level Requirements 1
Ability to interact directly and scalably over the network
Compatible with Web architecture and technologies

Highly distributed
Use by humans and software agents equally important
Support for composable, reusable model components

Root data-structure representations specified using XML
schema

Representations in other languages autogenerated directly
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Connection point between syntax and RDF Schema, semantics
19-20 August 2002
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Top-Level Requirements 2
Simple learning curve and repeatable examples

Support users and developers
Modular structure
Ability to directly interact with network layer
 Plug-ins connecting into kernel plug-ins at run time

Standards-based

IEEE, ISO, W3C, IETF, Web3D
Integrate with tactical systems
Augment group shared picture of operations
 Producers and consumers
 System life-cycle patterns, repeatability
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Top-Level Requirements 3
Support for XML and multiple programming languages
Dynamically extensible at run time: “always on”

software + hardware, diversity includes backwards compatibility

loose coupling, verification/validation, repair, graceful degradation,
redundancy, etc.
Security levels consistent with current Web technology
Public library of useful reusable components
Cross-platform capabilities
Rendering support and architectural hooks for visual simulations
19-20 August 2002
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Top-Level Requirements 4
Expected computer performance:

Small, fast, inexpensive computers

Reconnect via GRID computing (distributed operating systems)
Expected network performance:

Modems through ADSL (0.05-1.5 Mbps) for limited participation

10 - 1Gbps for local participation

OC3 up through gigabit wide-area networking
Backward compatibility with existing architectures and
protocols, where it makes sense

e.g. DIS, HLA/RTI, ALSP, probably many others
19-20 August 2002
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M&S Functional Requirements
Backward compatibility
Authoritative representations
Composability
Multi-resolution modeling
Tactical system integration
Simulation support services
Time management
 Logging and playback

19-20 August 2002
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M&S Issues
Discuss the shared goal of bringing working M&S
applications matching real world problems into tactical use.
Discuss approaches for backwards compatibility to
HLA/RTI and DIS technologies which don’t constrain
emergence of new capabilities. Explore specific bridging
approaches for HLA/RTI and DIS over web channels.
Discuss compatibility with the Joint Technical Architecture
(JTA), http://www-jta.itsi.disa.mil.
Explore integration of C4I systems to augment joint
common operational picture.
Discuss approaches for playback capture.
Identify technology availability: immediate, near-term (1-2
years), likely (3-5 years), problematic.
19-20 August 2002
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Design Ideas
1
Object-oriented programs + validatable structured data

Repeatable programming metaphors + XML tagsets/registries
Language and object-system independent

e.g. CORBA/IDL, SOAP, RMI/RPC, others
Design patterns unambiguously define language bindings

Map representations, component models from root XML schemas
to programming languages and API bindings of interest
Wire protocols unambiguously, flexibly defined using XML
Run-time extensibility, portability, interoperability for streams
 Packet description language -or- direct mappability from Schema

19-20 August 2002
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Design Ideas
2
Time services support wide-area routing and playback
Participating computer clocks all set correctly(!) via NTP or GPS
 RTP for all stream headers
 SMIL for stream synchronization
 Higher-level time abstractions communicable by system
 What about supercomputer batch-mode asynchronous?

Infrastructure represented as objects in system
Enable object and service discovery at runtime
 Ability to monitor, test, improve systems at local and global scale
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19-20 August 2002
31
Business Model 1
Minimal architecture is open source implementation

Royalty free, usable without any fee restrictions whatsoever
Important to have two or more interoperable implementations

Commercial implementations profitably augment open source
Long-term stable infrastructure enables sustainable business
models

Flexible architecture broadens market: not “just” military simulation,
also full World Wide Web via open/secure Internets

Web-enabled architecture allows more sponsors to participate, which
allows simulations, models, and applications to survive despite
intermittent funding profiles

Transferable career-building skills and reusable experience for
programmers and managers
19-20 August 2002
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Business Model 2
Commercial models in partnership with open-source

Support
 Offer programming skill for a fee and give up rights to the source if it
is infrastructure related.

Proprietary software
 A vendor may write a simulator that runs on top of the free
infrastructure. They can use any license they like on this and sell it
as they see fit.

Consulting
 Someone needs to put together the simulations. Even if all the parts
are free, this is a salable service.

Maintenance
 Numerous success stories exist.
Success of the overall endeavor is key to business success.
19-20 August 2002
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DoD Business Model
Commercial technology is crucial

We can’t do it alone
Special technology requirements harmful

Translate into always spending too much for unique,
outdated technology
Nothing succeeds like success

Slipstreaming standards and industry “best practices”
makes best sense for industry partners too
19-20 August 2002
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Open Issues
Source code control



Interoperability test suite and certification shows conformance
Source forking no longer divisive issue, let many flowers bloom
“Actual results” validation through use with tactical systems
Architecture

What are good driving exemplar applications?
Reality pulls teams through the big design space
Must show significant “value add” to current practices plus current excitement

Can we extend some existing systems (e.g. HLA/RTI capable), show
interoperability with legacy systems via good examples?
e.g. NSS, OneSAF, ITEM


Multiple inheritance – no; multiple interfaces – yes
Do we need a specified method for distributed synchronization, or is
open architecture supporting different models sufficient?
19-20 August 2002
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Recent work: workshop on
software componentization
July 2002, DMSO, DC
Consensus seemed to be:

components are a worthwhile approach to consider for
improving composability and interoperability of diverse
interacting simulations

component technology is sufficiently mature and well defined for
building exemplars
Slidesets and conclusions available? _____
19-20 August 2002
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Contact
19-20 August 2002
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Contacts
Don Brutzman
Michael Zyda
Don McGregor
Andrzej Kapolka
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
831.656.2149
831.656.2305
831.656.4090
831.656.2253
Mark Pullen
[email protected]
703.993.1538
Katherine Morse
Steve Fouskarinis
[email protected]
[email protected]
858.826.6728
858-826-4407
http://www.MovesInstitute.org/xmsf
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Rooms
Web/XML:
Root 200B (by Don’s office)
Networking:
Spanagel 254 (by Mike’s office)
M + S:
Right here in auditorium
19-20 August 2002
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