ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the design, development, and use of a performance monitoring tool for Distributed Interactive Simulations (DIS). A typical DIS environment consists of hundreds of simulations distributed on both local and wide area networks. The adoption of the High Level Architecture (HLA) by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) creates even larger and more complex simulation environments and since DIS continues to interoperate within HLA, the resource demands continue to cause performance bottlenecks that limit its effectiveness. The monitoring tool described in this paper can provide meaningful performance information used as a guide in making decisions about the configuration and control of the available hardware and software resources used in DIS. This information can also be used to support DIS modeling requirements and design. Results are presented from tests comparing alternative implementations of the performance monitor; the goal is to achieve a balance between the amount and types of performance data collected and the intrusiveness of the instrumentation code. Testing, analysis, and use of the monitoring system during DIS exercises has demonstrated the utility of a tool that provides high-level performance information to support persons making inferences about dynamic system and simulation behavior.