Overlay Multicast for Real - Time Distributed Simulation

OVERLAY MULTICAST FOR REAL-TIME DISTRIBUTED SIMULATION This report provides a top-level architecture for an overlay multicast service in support of distributed real-time virtual simulations over an open network environment. The top-level architecture for the overlay protocol was developed based on key concepts identified in the laboratory performance studies, the analytical model, and the studies of live simulations. The proposed protocol is called the Extensible Modeling and Simulation Framework Overlay Multicast Relay Protocol (XOMR). The XOMR provides overlay multicast message relay services to support many-to-many communications in the very dynamic environment of distributed real-time virtual simulation. (See Appendix B for definition of overlay multicast.) Appendix A includes results from demonstration of the prototype protocol based on the top-level architecture. The results demonstrate that overlay multicast service is a viable mechanism to meet the demands of communications messaging for distributed real-time virtual simulation. A message traffic generator and test environment was developed for use in performance evaluation of a prototype protocol used to demonstrate feasibility for use of overlay multicast to support distributed real-time simulation.