Method and apparatus for verifying, analyzing and optimizing a distributed simulation

• US 5,910,903 A
• Filed: 07/31/1997
• Issued: 06/08/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PRC, Inc. (Arthur D. Little, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PRC, Inc. (Arthur D. Little, Inc.)
• Inventors: Johnson, Christopher H., Feinberg, Jerry M., Stalcup, Bruce W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Teska, Kevin J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): KNOX, LONNIE A
• Application Number:
  US08/903,733
• Time in Patent Office: 677 Days
• Field of Search: 364/578, 364/188, 364/132, 364/138, 395/182.05, 395/183.14, 395/200.54, 395/200.32, 395/183.01, 395/500
• US Class Current: 703/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/261 by simulating additional hardware, e.g. fault simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3457 Performance evaluation by simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

A method and apparatus for verifying, analyzing and optimizing a distributed simulation conducted on one or more simulation components from one or more control computers where the present invention may be overlaid onto a distributed simulation as may be conducted by technologies now known for conducting such simulations, where each simulation component has simulator middleware which is operatively connected to a control computer and where the control computer has agent-applications which it may send to the simulator middleware of one or more selected simulation components to perform a task such as gathering data about a simulation entity and return that data to the control computer for subsequent analysis such as calculating average characteristics or effectiveness of simulation components and having tools for optimizing the distributed simulation by modifying or creating agent-applications to send to selected simulators which change the parameters of the distributed simulation and re-run the distributed simulations.

Claims

1. A method of concurrently monitoring from one or more control computers a running distributed simulation on at least one simulation component running independently from said one or more control computers, said distributed simulation being formed by at least two simulation components running in hetrogeneous environments, comprising the steps of:

communicating instructions to said simulation component from said control computer; and

collecting data from said simulation component responsive to said communicated instructions.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of communicating information to one or more of said one or more control computers responsive to said collected data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said communicated instructions do not disturb the distributed simulation.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step of collecting data is performed in the absence of further communicated instructions.

5. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of creating instructions for collecting data and communicating information prior to said step of communicating instructions.

6. The method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of verifying whether the distributed simulation is accurate based upon said communicated information after said step of communicating information.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of validating the distributed simulation based upon said communicated information.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

detecting inaccuracies in the distributed simulation;

identifying simulation components causing inaccuracies in the distributed simulation;

selecting identified simulation components causing inaccuracies; and

sending customized instructions to selected simulation components from said control computer to correct the inaccuracies in the distributed simulation.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

determining the cause of the detected inaccuracies; and

creating customized instructions to be sent according to said sending step which are responsive to the cause determined in said cause determining step, wherein said creating step occurs prior to said sending step.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of pre-analyzing said collected data prior to said step of communicating information.

11. A method of optimizing a distributed simulation conducted by at least one simulation component the steps comprising:

requesting information from said simulation components, said request being made by a control computer independent of said simulation component;

receiving at said control computer said requested information; and

determining optimal distributed simulation parameters based upon said requested information.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the steps of:

implementing the optimal parameters; and

running the distributed simulation.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said implementing step comprises the steps of:

downloading agent-applications to at least one of said at least one simulation components; and

executing said downloaded agent-applications.

14. A system for controlling a distributed simulation comprising:

plural independent simulation components;

at least one control computer having local control means for communicating instructions to said plural simulation components;

a communication medium operatively connecting said plural simulation components with said at least one control hosts;

wherein each of said plural simulation components has control means responsive to said communicated instructions which is capable of

(a) collecting data from the one of said plural simulation components to which said instructions have been communicated, and

(b) communicating information to said local control means responsive to the data collected.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said at least one control computer further comprises means for verifying the accuracy of the distributed simulation based upon said communicated information.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein said at least one control computer further comprises means for analyzing said communicated information and reaching a conclusion.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein said at least one control computer further comprises means for optimizing the distributed simulation based upon said communicated information.

18. A computer program product having a computer readable medium containing computer readable code recorded thereon for monitoring a distributed simulation conducted on one or more simulation components from a control computer comprising:

means for accessing a library having one or more agent-applications stored thereon;

means for providing one or more of said one or more agent-applications to one or more of said one or more simulation components;

means for receiving data from said simulation components to which said agent-applications were provided, wherein the data received is in relation to executing said provided agent-applications on said one or more simulation components to which they are provided; and

means for verifying the accuracy of said distributed simulation based upon said received data.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising means for analyzing said received data.

20. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising means for optimizing said distributed simulation as a function of said received data.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein said means for optimizing comprises:

means for determining a set of optimal parameters;

means for selecting one or more agent-applications from said library responsive to said set of optimal parameters;

means for selecting one or more of said one or more simulation components responsive to said set of optimal parameters; and

wherein said selected agent-applications are provided to said selected simulation components.

22. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein said means for optimizing comprises:

means for determining a set of optimal parameters;

means for creating one or more agent-applications responsive to said set of optimal parameters;

means for selecting one or more of said one or more simulation components responsive to said set of optimal parameters; and

wherein said created agent-applications are provided to said selected simulation components.

23. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein said means for optimizing comprises:

means for determining a set of optimal parameters;

means for modifying one or more agent-applications from said library responsive to said set of optimal parameters;

means for selecting one or more of said one or more simulation components responsive to said set of optimal parameters; and

wherein said modified agent-applications are provided to said selected simulation components.

24. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising means for controlling said provided agent-applications executing on said simulation components to which they are provided.

25. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising a graphical user interface for facilitating communication between a user and one or more of said means for providing, said means for receiving, said means for verifying, said means for analyzing, and said means for optimizing.