Synchronizing simulations in distributed interactive simulation

Distributed interactive simulation (DIS) provides the infrastructure to build large-scale simulations by interconnecting independent simulators via a network. These simulators execute primarily in real time because of the human-in-the-loop requirements. The future of DIS in the general area of distributed simulation will include non real time simulations, such as constructive wargames. Active research in the area of parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) has devised means by which event driven simulations can be parallelized, by utilizing state of the art parallel architectures and scheduling events which can be executed concurrently and in a conflict-free fashion. Simulation has experienced growth in both these communities. Each community has specific needs and requirements which have to be met. This paper examines the areas of DIS in which PDES techniques may be employed to achieve more parallelism. In particular, this paper addresses the need for, and implementation of synchronization in current DIS networks. The interaction between constructive and other categories of simulation will require synchronized DIS applications, and employ mechanisms utilized in PDES.