OPERA: An HPCN architecture for distributed component-based real-time simulations

The primary mission of the EU-funded OPERA project is the training of operators in the area of chemical industry by means of simulation applications that run in a cost-effective standard LAN environment. As a second goal, OPERA also aims at achieving great flexibility to ease changes in the released simulator. To achieve its primary goal, OPERA had to solve the problem of real-time combined with the requirement for high computing. To achieve its secondary goal, OPERA noticeably had 1) to provide a way to integrate hybrid simulation models, 2) to be highly scalable and configurable (being able to run from a single computer to multi-processors clusters). As a matter of fact, OPERA results appear to be valuable in many areas, far beyond the initial requirements in the domain of distributed simulation.