Dis and Hla: Connecting People, Simulations and Simulators in the Military, Space and Civil Domains

During the past decade, requirements within the US defence community for simulation-based tools to support acquisition, planning, (team) training and analysis, have resulted in a standard for distributed simulation known as DIS (Distributed Interactive Simulation). The potential advantages of distributed simulation technologies are evident: increased flexibility, building on existing software and communications standards, maximisation of the use of existing simulation assets, and thus reduced costs. Although DIS was originally developed for military applications, the technology is well suited as a simulator interoperability standard for both the space domain and other civil application areas. The first international DIS experiments between space agencies have already taken place. As in other distributed computing areas, the military have expressed a need for standardisation on a higher abstraction level than the basic communication protocols such as DIS. This trend has led to a new standard, developed and supported by the US Defence Modelling and Simulation Office (DMSO) known as HLA (High Level Architecture). This paper describes three important activities: recent and current developments of the DIS and HLA standards, the potential benefits of DIS and HLA for the space domain, and issues related to spin-in, spin-off, and dual-use of distributed simulation technology and applications in the military and civil domains.