A comparison of CMB- and HLA-based approaches to type I interoperability reference model problems for COTS-based distributed simulation

Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) simulation packages (CSPs) are software used by many simulation modellers to build and experiment with models of various systems in domains such as manufacturing, health, logistics and commerce. COTS distributed simulation deals with the interoperation of CSPs and their models. Such interoperability has been classified into six interoperability reference models. As part of an on-going standardisation effort, this paper introduces the COTS Simulation Package Emulator, a proposed benchmark that can be used to investigate Type I interoperability problems in COTS distributed simulation. To demonstrate its use, two approaches to this form of interoperability are discussed, an implementation of the CMB conservative algorithm, an example of a so-called “light” approach, and an implementation of the HLA TAR algorithm, an example of a so-called “heavy” approach. Results from experimentation over four federation topologies are presented and it is shown the HLA approach out performs the CMB approach in almost all cases. The paper concludes that the CSPE benchmark is a valid basis from which the most efficient approach to Type I interoperability problems for COTS distributed simulation can be discovered