The WarpIV simulation kernel

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the WarpIV simulation kernel that was designed to be an initial implementation of the standard simulation architecture (SSA). WarpIV is the next generation replacement for the synchronous parallel environment for emulation and discrete event simulation (SPEEDES) framework that has supported a number of DoD simulation programs including MDWAR, EADTB, JSIMS, and others. This paper first provides a look back at the historical evolution of SPEEDES, the evolution of the SSA, and the development of WarpIV. This historical background is followed by a description of the layered SSA and design of WarpIV. Capabilities and new algorithms or data structures provided by each layer of the architecture are mentioned, but are not described in full detail. Several benchmarks for the underlying communications infrastructure and internal event-processing engine are given. The summary and conclusions section highlights the main technical points of the paper and describes future research and development goals for WarpIV.