The JS']JSIM web-based simulation environment

In its ideal form, web-based simulation should allow simulation models as well as simulation results to be as readily distributable and composable as today's web documents. The rapid advances in web technology, most notably Java, are helping to make this a possibility. Support for executable web content, universal portability, component technology, and standard high-level packages for accessing databases and producing graphical user interfaces are important enablers of web-based simulation. Component-based software can be used to develop highly modular simulation environments supporting high reusability of software components. Because of the potentially large scope of web-based simulation, greater demands are placed on simulation environments. They should support rapid visual model development, access to local and remote databases, techniques for executing models or federations of models in a variety of ways, and embedding of simulation within larger systems. The use of component technology in the JSIM web-based simulation environment allows simulation models to be treated as components that can be dynamically assembled to build model federations. It also allows simulation inputs and outputs to be dynamically linked to database systems, making storage of simulation results easy and flexible. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.