An Object Infrastructure for Computational Steering of Distributed Simulations

This paper presents a brief overview of a framework for the interactive steering of distributed applications that addresses three key issues: (1) Definition of Interaction Objects that provide sensors and actuators for interrogation and control. These objects encapsulate existing computation data-structures and can be distributed (spanning many processors) and dynamic (be created, deleted, or migrated to another processor). (2) Definition of a control network of interaction agents that enable the interactive steering of distributed interaction objects. (3) Definition of an Interaction Gateway that provides a proxy to the entire application and can be accessed via a web server. This research is part of an ongoing effort to develop a web-based computational collaboratory that enables geographically distributed scientists/engineers to collaboratively monitor, and control distributed applications.