Using COTS Software Tools to Assist in the Development of HLA Federates

The US Defence Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO) is leading an effort to produce the High Level Architecture (HLA), a common technical framework which aims to facilitate interoperability amongst models, simulations and C4I systems and the reuse of modelling and simulation (M&S) components. The US DoD M&S community has ensured continuing evolution in the HLA by giving it their highest priority. The Land Operations Division (LOD) of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) plans to improve its understanding of the HLA both in terms of technical content and its potential role within the field of distributed simulation for capability development. This paper describes the process taken and lessons learned in developing an HLA compliant federation. Two Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) software products were employed to support the development of two HLA federates: OSim, from OriginalSim Inc. and VR-Link, from MÄK Technologies. A third HLA federate, consisting of MÄK’s VRLink Stealth, was used to observe the other two. This exercise in HLA federation development gave an opportunity to analyse the HLA architecture and address the inevitable need for legacy simulators to migrate from DIS to HLA.