Distributed Simulation using the Virtual Test Bed and its Real-Time Extension
Jimena L Bastos, Jian Wu, Noel N Schulz, Rong Liu and Antonello Monti
Summer Computer Simulation Conference 2007 (SCSC 2007)
San Diego, California (USA), July 15-18, 2007
Abstract
Distributed simulation is desirable at many levels of system design. Modeling and simulation of large complex systems, remote monitoring and control, and non-destructive remote testing of devices are three examples of the many applications in which both distributed and real-time distributed simulation are advantageous. Distributed simulation reduces simulation complexity by allowing the partitioning of a large complex system into two or more smaller subsystems. In addition, distributed simulation not only permits computational resource sharing, but also enables teamwork. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) and its real-time extension, VTB-RT, have been adapted to deal with distributed simulation in both non-real-time and real-time. Efforts at Mississippi State University and the University of South Carolina have made possible the addition of models for distributed simulation to the VTB model library to handle both natural and signal coupling at the decoupling point. For real-time distributed simulation, models for VTB-RT have been implemented as well as an interrupt module with global positioning system synchronization to enable exchange of signals among subsystems in real-time. Several application examples that make use of the different distributed simulation VTB and VTB-RT models are presented in this paper.