Research and commercial opportunities in Web-Based Simulation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0928-4869(01)00035-0Get rights and content

Abstract

In a few short years, Web-Based Simulation has exhibited explosive growth in the simulation research community. This paper which grew out of a panel discussion at the 2000 WEBSIM Conference, briefly reviews the development of this research area and considers future opportunities, both on the research and commercial sides. On the research side, the area is maturing, but still quite active. Efforts to expanded Web-Based Simulation to include new capabilities beyond those found in conventional simulation technology or provide interoperation with other information processing technology are particularly promising. On the commercial side, a critical mass of research knowledge is now available. However, some catalyst is needed to produce any substantial movement of simulation vendors toward Web-Based Simulation. This could happen quickly under a couple of scenarios: A small simulation vendor focused on Web-Based Simulation could begin to claim significant market share. Alternatively, the development of a “killer-app” to demonstrate a clear advantage to Web-Based Simulation could make this shift happen very quickly.

Introduction

Web-Based Simulation began shortly after Web browsers became readily available. Early efforts began in 1995, first by providing Web front-ends to simulations running as Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts/programs. In addition, work began on Java-based simulation packages, systems and environments that would run anywhere on the Web. Results from these activities were first reported in simulation conferences starting in 1996 (e.g., there was one session [2], [7], [10] on Web-Based Simulation in the 1996 Winter Simulation Conference). From these beginnings, the interest and level of research effort increased very rapidly. In 1998, an entire conference dedicated to Web-Based Modeling and Simulation (WEBSIM) began which continues on today.

Now that Web-Based Simulation has been around for about half a decade, it is a good time to take inventory of how far the field has come, but more importantly where it is going. At the 2000 WEBSIM Conference, a panel was formed to address this very issue. This paper is detailed report on the findings of this panel.

The panel was moderated by Dr. Miller and the panelists consisted of Drs. Fishwick, Benjamin, Szymanski and Taylor. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: In Section 2, Dr. Fishwick will present his perspective on future research directions for Web-Based Simulation. In Section 3, Dr. Benjamin will discuss some fundamental programming paradigms that are essential for continued progress in Web-Based Simulation (e.g., object, component and agent). At a higher level, appropriate software architectures must be considered (e.g., Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DIA) and High-Level Architecture (HLA)). This discussion will lead into Section 4, where Dr. Szymanski will consider software architectural as well as implementational issues for Web-Based Simulation applied to large-scale simulation and multi-modeling projects. Finally, Dr. Taylor will address the issue of when and how Web-Based Simulation will impact the commercial side of simulation. Responses from other panelist will also be included in each section. A brief summary will highlight some of the significant discussion.

Section snippets

Research directions (Dr. Fishwick)

Now that several prototype Web-Based Simulation systems and environments have been developed and studied, future work should build on top these successes. Ultimately, this work will likely broaden the notion of simulation and widen its applicability. In this section, a perspective on future research in Web-Based Simulation is offered.

1. What areas/concepts fit under the umbrella of Web-Based Simulation (e.g., distribution, componentry, interoperability, embedding, visualization/animation, VR)?

Components and agents (Dr. Benjamin)

Because Web-based software development involves programming-in-the-large, it is important to use state-of-the-art techniques from software engineering, distributed systems and artificial intelligence. Currently, there has been substantial progress in the application of component-based and agent-based approaches. In this section, three questions are posed and addressed to highlight issues related to WBS.

1. Is there agreement on the definitions of (a) object, (b) component and (c) agent. How are

Modeling-in-the large (Dr. Szymanski)

To make modeling-in-the-large over the Web a reality, issues beyond components and agents must be addressed. These issues include concepts and techniques for multi-modeling and meta-modeling as well as interoperability and scalability issues.

1. What is the relationship between Web-Based Simulation and Multi/Meta-Modeling?

Meta-modeling involves linking different models of the same or related phenomena to create a fuller and/or more precise meta-model. The component models may involve different

Commercialization issues (Dr. Taylor)

Although WBS is new, it is not too early to think about commercialization issues. New technological advances are typically slow to appear in commercial systems (parallel simulation technology is a case in point). Because of the ever-increasing importance of the Web, there may be pressure for faster adoption. This section discusses issues of inertia and resistance, as well as, possible catalysts for more rapid adoption.

1. From a commercial perspective, what is Web-Based Simulation and what can

Summary

From the above discussions, it is apparent that the question is not “will” WBS become important, but rather “when” and “by what path” will it become important. For the simulation research community, there are ever-growing research opportunities as discussed. On the commercial side, vendors who see the importance of the Web and interoperation with other information technology tools, have, at least in our opinion, great future opportunities.

References (18)

  • J. Banks, The future of simulation software: a panel discussion, in: Proceedings of the 1998 Winter Simulation...
  • A. Buss, K. Stork, Discrete event simulation and World-Wide Web using Java, in: Proceedings of the 1996 Winter...
  • G. Chen, B. Szymanski, Multi-paradigm simulations in modeling spread of Lyme disease, in: Proceedings of the 2000...
  • R.M. Cubert, T. Goktekin, P.A. Fishwick, MOOSE: architecture of an object-oriented multimodeling simulation system, in:...
  • P.A. Fishwick et al.

    A multimodel methodology for qualitative model engineering

    ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation

    (1992)
  • P.A. Fishwick

    A taxonomy for simulation modeling based on programming language principles

    IIE Transactions on IE Research

    (1995)
  • P.A. Fishwick, Web-based simulation: some personal observations, in: Proceedings of the 1996 Winter Simulation...
  • J. Grudin

    Computer supported cooperative work: history and focus

    IEEE Computer

    (1994)
  • J.A. Miller, Y. Ge, J. Tao, Component-based simulation environments: JSIM as a case study using Java Beans, in:...
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (33)

  • Integration of web based environment for learning discrete simulation in e-learning system

    2012, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory
    Citation Excerpt :

    Relevant research suggests several categories of web-based simulation [16]: local simulation and visualization, remote simulation and visualization, hybrid simulation and visualization, component-based simulation, model repository, distributed simulation. The key advantages of the web-based simulation approach are the following: wide availability, controlled access, efficient maintenance, increased integration, interactivity, collaboration, cross platform compatibility and interoperability [7,14,16,17,25,33]. In the past years, there has been much research dealing with tools, languages and methods for the WBS [1,5,16,10,13,14,24,28,31].

  • Web-based simulation of fruit fly to support biosecurity decision-making

    2012, Ecological Informatics
    Citation Excerpt :

    We analyse these instances by paying attention to their main functional or non-functional features in order to determine how closely they suit the set of specifications that we have proposed for our own system in Section 2. Although ecological simulation involving populations and behaviour is not new (Madenjian et al., 1991; Wall et al., 1993), the previous two decades have seen strong growth in the area of simulation modelling (DeAngelis and Mooij, 2005; Miller et al., 2001). CLIMEX is a generic and dynamic simulation model to estimate the potential geographical distribution of an insect based on climate data (Sutherst, 1999).

  • A review of Web-based simulation and supporting tools

    2010, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory
    Citation Excerpt :

    Indeed, Fishwick [20] notes that the area of WBS had good coverage at conferences and in special journal issues. Still quite active on the research-side, the area of Web-based simulation is still in its infancy but is maturing, with efforts to expand Web-based simulation to include new capabilities beyond those found in conventional simulation technology or provide interoperation with other information processing technology being particularly promising [12,15]. However, despite the great promise held by Web-based simulation [3], the number of real applications and efficient tools for Web-based simulation is still very small [21].

  • A simulation framework for technical systems life cycle cost analysis

    2010, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory
  • Ontology based web simulation system for hydrodynamic modeling

    2008, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory
  • Model-driven decision support systems: Concepts and research directions

    2007, Decision Support Systems
    Citation Excerpt :

    A Web browser and an Internet connection deliver the decision support functionality to the user. Kuljis and Paul [43] and Miller et al. [54] reviewed web-based simulation research and developments. A new generation of Web-based model-driven DSS is beginning to emerge.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text