The Internet of Simulation, a Specialisation of the Internet of Things with Simulation and Workflow as a Service (SIM/WFaaS)

Abstract

Abstract-A trend seen in many industries is the increasing reliance on modelling and simulation to facilitate design, decision making and training. Previously, these models would operate in isolation but now there is a growing need to integrate and connect simulations together for co-simulation. In addition, the 21 st century has seen the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling the interconnectivity of smart devices across the Internet. In this paper we propose that an important, and often overlooked, domain of IoT is that of modelling and simulation. Expanding IoT to encompass interconnected simulations enables the potential for an Internet of Simulation (IoS) whereby models and simulations are exposed to the wider internet and can be accessed on an "as-a-service" basis. The proposed IoS would need to manage simulation across heterogeneous infrastructures; temporal and causal aspects of simulations; as well as variations in data structures. Via the proposed Simulation as a Service (SIMaaS) and Workflow as a Service (WFaaS) constructs in IoS, highly complex simulation integration could be performed automatically, resulting in high fidelity system level simulations. Additionally, the potential for faster than real-time simulation afforded by IoS opens the possibility of connecting IoS to existing IoT infrastructure via a real-time bridge to facilitate decision making based on live data.

Massive-Scale Automation in Cyber-Physical Systems: Vision & Challenges

“…In certain cyber-physical systems, especially mobile systems, where power usage or weight is a concern, it may be necessary to utilise cloud or HPC computing for simulation. Just as the IoT allows the interconnection of devices, the IoS [12] could allow the interconnection of simulation and provide the detailed decision support and predictive power that intelligent automation systems require (see figure 2). One proposed benefit of this approach is the ability to construct large co-simulations from constituent parts, mitigating the difficulty of development associated with large scale simulation [13], [57].…”

“…Further the augmentation of the existing systems with simulations as services (SIMaaS), from the model of reality, facilitates decision support as well as prototyping and product testing from an Industry 4.0 perspective [12]. Combining these with workflows as services (WFaaS) provides an extensible means for augmenting the existing systems.…”

“…Specifically in order to enhance the cyber-physical systems that exist within each of the domains there must be a method for providing a set of shared perspectives on reality that can be integrated with simulation and decision support systems via the Internet of Simulation (IoS) [12]. Achieving this will require a significant undertaking to provide a set of unifying standards to integrate both the existing and future technologies [13].…”

“…These services may be hardware systems or devices, human individuals, Cloud hosted software (SaaS), or even simulations (SIMaaS). The aggregation or composition of these services into workflows and subsequently the workflows into services (WFaaS) will provide a scalable approach to augmenting existing systems [12].…”

Service-Oriented Reference Architecture for Smart Cities

“…This automated integration will require a shared model of reality that aggregates the different perspectives on reality as seen by the different domains and systems. This model of reality can then be used with the Internet of Simulation (IoS) to facilitate decision support where traditional machine learning methods are inadequate [10]. Furthermore the existing standards for service-orientation and system integration are not sufficient, as they do not capture the additional detail that would be required, and not uniform, meaning that they are not currently integrable [11].…”