Discrete-event simulation on the Web

We describe a mechanism for providing a discrete-event simulation facility on the Web. The mechanism calls for integrating the CORBA and Java technologies - simulation applications (models) written in Java access discrete-event simulation capability through a CORBA interface. The discrete-event simulation facility is specified in CORBA IDL which defines operations for object definition, inter-object communication, and event scheduling. The IDL interface definition may be implemented in Java by using different simulation algorithms, over different operating systems or hardware platforms. Simulation applications, developed as stand-alone Java applications or Java applets running within Web browsers, access the facility via the Internet inter-ORB protocol (IIOP) to obtain runtime support for model execution. The paper presents the discrete-event simulation facility IDL interface, describes its prototype implementation using Java and OrbixWeb, and illustrates its application via a producer-consumer example written in Java