A framework for linking distributed simulations using software agents

The paper presents the basic ideas behind the use of software agent technology for distributed simulation and data assimilation. A software agent is an autonomous computer program that operates on behalf of someone or something. A mobile agent has the ability to migrate during execution from machine to machine in a heterogeneous network, while a stationary agent executes only on the system on which it began execution. To understand the role of agents in distributed simulation, note that simulations often operate on static datasets and data sources. Many simulations would produce more accurate results if they could access dynamically changing data from other sources, such as sensors or even other simulations. From the perspective of one simulation, other simulations are data resources, producing information possibly relevant to the past, present, or future of the system being modeled. Software agents allow dynamic linking between distributed simulations and efficient monitoring of and access to remote data resources. Specifically, they conserve bandwidth, provide custom operations without precompiling or preloading, and adapt to support disconnected operations. The paper describes the development of a software agent based framework for dynamically linking distributed simulations and other remote data resources. The framework called ABELS (Agent-Based Environment for Linking Simulations) allows independently designed simulations to communicate seamlessly with no a priori knowledge of the details of other simulations and data sources. We discuss our architecture and current implementation developed using the D'Agents mobile agent system.