Multisimulations: Towards Next Generation Integrated Simulation Environments

In this paper, we consider the challenge of designing a reflective middleware to integrate multiple autonomous simulation models into an integrated simulation environment (multiasimulation) wherein we can model and execute complex scenarios involving multiple simulators. One of the limitations of the simulators is that they are developed by domain experts who have an in-depth understanding of the phenomena being modeled and typically designed to be executed and evaluated independently. Therefore, the grand challenge is to facilitate the process of pulling all of independently created models together into an interoperating multisimulation model where decision makers can explore different alternatives and conduct low cost experiments. We aim to build such integrated simulation environments by creating a loosely coupled federation of pre-existing simulators. We evaluate our proposed methodology via a detailed case study from the emergency response domain by integrating three disparate pre-existing simulators – a fire simulator (CFAST), an evacuation simulator (Drillsim) and a communication simulator (LTEsim).