Using Agents to perform Data Filtering in High Level Architecture

In the Runtime Infrastructure (RTI) of High Level Architecture (HLA), the purpose of Data Distribution Management (DDM) services is to reduce the amount of irrelevant data sent (communicated) between federates (simulations) and cut network communication cost. The current DDM schemes employed in RTI, i.e. region-based DDM and grid-based DDM, are both oriented to send as little irrelevant data to subscribers as possible, but they only manage to filter part of this information and some irrelevant data is still being communicated. In our RTI implementation, we use intelligent agents to perform data filtering and send the subscribers the exact information that they require. In our method, anytime a federate subscribes to some object class attributes or interaction classes, intelligent mobile agents are launched to publishers of those attributes or interactions. Then whenever the publishers update object attributes or send interactions, the agents fetch the data, perform data filtering and then send the subscriber exactly what it wants. The data filtering work normally done at the location of the receivers is now performed at the physical location of the senders, i.e., the publishing federates. Thus, through agent data filtering at the physical location of the publishers, we reduce irrelevant data to zero and minimize the network communication cost. * This project is supported by NUS Academic Research Fund RP3981671.