Avoiding another Green Elephant - A Proposal for the Next Generation HLA based on the Model Driven Architecture

TL;DR

This paper proposes integrating the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) with the High Level Architecture (HLA) to modernize simulation interoperability and prevent HLA from becoming obsolete amidst emerging technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to incorporate MDA into HLA, creating a unified standard for legacy, current, and future simulation systems.

Findings

MDA can enhance HLA's adaptability and relevance.

Integration of MDA with HLA supports legacy and future systems.

Proposes a framework for HLA modernization using MDA.

Abstract

When looking through the proceedings of the recent Simulation Interoperability Workshops, a lot of papers - some of them even awarded by the committee - are dealing with alternative concepts outside or beyond the High Level Architecture (HLA): Web Services, the extensible Markup Language (XML), Java Beans, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), etc. Similarly, requirements driven by interoperability issues have resulted in the need to use meta modeling, adaptive models, and common repositories. The use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a model description language is also rapidly becoming a standard. All these concepts have relations to the HLA, but they are not part of it. There seems to be the danger that HLA is overrun by respective developments of the free market and will become irrelevant finally. ... This paper introduces the MDA concept and shows, how the HLA can be integrated to become a standard stub for simulation applications of legacy systems, systems under development, and systems of the future.