Using REST Web-Services Architecture for Distributed Simulation

• Published in: 2009 ACM/IEEE/SCS 23rd Workshop on Principles of Advanced and Distributed Simulation pp. 114 - 121
• Main Authors: Al-Zoubi, Khaldoon, Wainer, Gabriel
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC, USA IEEE Computer Society 22.06.2009; IEEE
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Application software; CD; Computational modeling; Computer simulation; Computing methodologies > Modeling and simulation > Model development and analysis; Computing methodologies > Modeling and simulation > Model development and analysis > Model verification and validation; Computing methodologies > Modeling and simulation > Simulation types and techniques > Distributed simulation; Containers; DEVS; Distributed Simulation; Information systems > World Wide Web > Web applications; Information systems > World Wide Web > Web services; Integrated circuit modeling; Object oriented modeling; REST; Scalability; Service oriented architecture; SOA; Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Management of computing and information systems > Project and people management > Systems analysis and design; Web server; Web services; CD; DEVS; REST; Web-Services; SOA; Distributed Simulation
• ISBN: 9780769537139; 0769537138
• ISSN: 1087-4097
• DOI: 10.1109/PADS.2009.16

In recent years, Web Services technologies have been successfully used for simplifying interoperability while providing scalability and flexibility in multiple applications, including distributed simulation software. The RESTful-CD++ simulation Server provides Web Services according to the REST principles by exposing services as URIs and consumed via HTTP messages. Therefore, the server becomes a service part of the Web that can be easily mashed-up with other applications and simulation software. In contrast, RPC-style SOAP-based Web Services use the Web as a transmission medium by exposing few URIs and many RPCs. RESTful-CD++ is (to our best knowledge) the only existing RESTful system in this area. Further, this distributed simulation package provides pioneering distributed simulation services using the Web architectural style. We present an overview of the principles, design and implementation of the RESTful-CD++ HTTP server and DCD++ simulation. We show that REST fulfills WS objectives with a much better and easier style than the SOAP-based systems.