A SaaS-based automated framework to build and execute distributed simulations from SysML models

The development of complex systems requires the use of quantitative analysis techniques to allow a designtime evaluation of the system behavior. In this context, distributed simulation (DS) techniques can be effectively introduced to assess whether or not the system satisfies the user requirements. Unfortunately, the development of a DS requires the availability of an IT infrastructure that could not comply with time-to-market requirements and budget constraints. In this respect, this work introduces HLAcloud, a model-driven and cloud-based framework to support both the implementation of a DS system from a SysML specification of the system under study and its execution over a public cloud infrastructure. The proposed approach, which exploits the HLA (High Level Architecture) DS standard, is founded on the use of model transformation techniques to generate both the Java/HLA source code of the DS system and the scripts required to deploy and execute the HLA federation onto the PlanetLab cloud-based infrastructure.