Enhancing the performance of HLA-based simulation systems via software diversity and active replication

In this paper we explore active replication based on software diversity for improving the responsiveness of simulation systems. Our proposal is framed by the High-Level-Architecture (HLA), namely the emerging standard for interoperability of simulation packages, and results in the design and implementation of an Active Replication Management Layer (ARML), which supports the execution of multiple software diversity-based replicas of a same simulator in a totally transparent manner. Beyond presenting the replication framework and the design/implementation of ARML, we also report the results of an experimental evaluation on a case study, quantifying the benefits from our proposal in terms of execution speed. © 2006 IEEE.