Smart Time Management—the unified time synchronization interface for the distributed simulation

Distributed simulation is a widely studied technique for the networked virtual environment. Among existing technologies, High Level Architecture (HLA) establishes a common distributed simulation framework that facilitates the interoperability and reuse of simulation components. However, some HLA services are very low-level and difficult to use, especially when a simulation is designed using a particular time synchronization mechanism. This paper describes an agent interface called Smart Time Management (STM). STM is used to unify the time management services of the time-stepped, event-driven, and optimistic time advancement in HLA specification. The capabilities of the STM include the followings: taking over events timestamp tagging work, maintaining a look-ahead value, and unifying different time advance approaches provided by the HLA Run Time Infrastructure (RTI). In addition, it adopts the time warp mechanism for optimistic simulation. In summary, STM presents a unified and scalable middle layer to allow the user to construct an HLA federation with a unanimous time management interface when solving the synchronization issue. The presented middle layer enables the user to deploy the conservative and optimistic synchronization mechanisms in a unanimous way.