Title: Service-oriented simulation using web ontology

Authors: David Bell; Sergio De Cesare; Mark Lycett; Simon J.E. Taylor; Navonil Mustafee

Addresses: School of Information System, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK ' School of Information System, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK ' School of Information System, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK ' School of Information System, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK ' School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Haldane Building, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK

Abstract: Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) Simulation Packages (CSPs) have proved popular in a wider industrial setting. Reuse of Simulation Component (SC) models by collaborating organisations or divisions is restricted, however, by the same semantic issues that restrict the inter-organisation use of other software services. Semantic models, in the form of ontology, utilised by a web-service-based discovery and deployment architecture provide one approach to support simulation model reuse. Semantic interoperation is achieved using domain-grounded SC ontology to identify reusable components and subsequently loaded into a CSP, and locally or remotely executed. The work is based on a health service simulation that addresses the transportation of blood. The ontology-engineering framework and discovery architecture provide a novel approach to inter-organisation simulation, uncovering domain semantics and providing a less intrusive mechanism for component reuse. The resulting web of component models and simulation execution environments present a nascent approach to simulation grids.

Keywords: COTS simulation; web services; ontology; model integration; semantic web; commercial simulation packages; off-the-shelf simulation packages; modelling; model reuse; semantic models; reusable components; blood transport; health services; healthcare; service discovery; inter-organisation simulation; simulation grids.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2012.049148

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2012 Vol.7 No.3, pp.217 - 227

Received: 02 Aug 2009
Accepted: 12 Jul 2010
Published online: 15 Nov 2014 *

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