Using Ontologies for Simulation Modeling

Ontological analysis has been shown to be an effective first step in the construction of robust knowledge based systems. However, the modeling and simulation community has not taken advantage of the benefits of ontology management methods and tools. Moreover, the popularity of semantic technologies and the semantic Web has provided several beneficial opportunities for the modeling and simulation communities of interest. This paper describes the role of ontologies in facilitating simulation modeling. It outlines the technical challenges in distributed simulation modeling and describes how ontology-based methods may be applied to address these challenges. The paper concludes by describing an ontology-based solution framework for simulation modeling and analysis and outlining the benefits of this solution approach