A COTS simulation package emulator (CSPE) for investigating COTS simulation package interoperability

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) simulation packages (CSPs) are widely used to facilitate the creation of simulation models using some kind of visual interactive interface. CSPs have "evolved" over the years and are well used to support modeling demands in different market niches and domains. However, in terms of distributed simulation, there is almost a complete lack of support for interoperability. The advent of the high level architecture (HLA) standard makes it possible to connect distributed model components together. The model components can be developed using specific CSPs best suited to the application area. In this paper, a CSP emulator (CSPE) is proposed to investigate the interfaces between the CSPs and the HLA Runtime Infrastructure. In addition to support for standalone models as provided by current CSPs, the CSPE has some new features needed for building distributed models. An evaluation is conducted between CSPE and Simul8, one of the popular CSPs.