Simulating Agent-Based Systems with HLA: The Case of SIM AGENT — Part II (03E–SIW–076)

In this paper we outline an approach to the distributed simulation of agent-based systems using the SIM AGENT toolkit and the High Level Architecture (HLA) simulator interoperability framework. Using a simple Tileworld scenario as an example, we show how the HLA can be used to flexibly distribute a SIM AGENT simulation with different agents being simulated on different machines. We outline the changes necessary to the SIM AGENT toolkit to allow integration with the HLA, and briefly describe the simulation cycle of the combined system which we call HLA AGENT. The integration is transparent in the sense that the existing SIM AGENT code runs unmodified and the agents are unaware that other parts of the simulation are running remotely. We present some preliminary experimental results which illustrate the performance of HLA AGENT on a Linux cluster running a distributed version of Tileworld and compare this with the original (non-distributed) SIM AGENT version.