Standardising distributed simulations : the high level architecture

Computer simulations have many application areas ranging from physics and chemistry research, biomedical engineering and weather forecast to military training and the preparation for missions in hazardous environments. Distributed simulations that involve humans-in-the-loop are typically applied for training and preparation of large, often international, military operations. The need for standardisation is clear from this observation. No wonder the military world, especially the United States Department of Defence, is the driving force behind the development of standards and technologies for distributed simulations, which resulted in the High Level Architecture. HLA is widely applied and is in the process of becoming an IEEE standard.