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Simulation has become a common tool in research projects and large logistic and manufacturing design projects.
Because of the growing scale, the need for distributed simulation grows rapidly also. Usually it is developed from a general information system approach e.g. by means of HLA (Kuhl et al., 1999] and CORBA [Adamski, Hiller, 1998].
Technically these approaches focus on 'data-integrity', but no provisions are made for model-integrity. Above that, complete knowledge about the final simulation structure is required. The iterative course of a design project however, requires a smooth (and preferably transparent) transition from stand-alone to distributed simulation.
The approach as described in this paper, preserves model integrity for process interaction simulation and is implemented in the free source language TOMAS as can be found on TOMASWEB.COM
First the basic elements and process interaction methods for stand-alone simulation are described and then a short description of the concepts used in TOMAS for distributed simulation are explained.
The concept is restricted to conservative distributed simulation.