MSGC 2012 Accepted Papers with Abstracts

Acceptance Rate: 36%

Papers submitted from: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Iran, Romania, Russian Federation, Sweden, USA.

P-O Östberg, Andreas Hellander, Brian Drawert, Erik Elmroth, Sverker Holmgren and Linda Petzold. Reducing Complexity in Management of eScience Computations

Abstract: In this paper we address reduction of complexity in management of scientific computations in distributed computing environments. We explore an approach based on separation of computation design (application development) and distributed execution of computations, and investigate best practices for construction of virtual infrastructures for computational science - software systems that abstract and virtualize the processes of managing scientific computations on heterogeneous distributed resource systems. As a result we present StratUm, a toolkit for management of eScience computations. To illustrate use of the toolkit, we present it in the context of a case study where we extend the capabilities of an existing kinetic Monte Carlo software framework to utilize distributed computational resources. The case study illustrates a viable design pattern for construction of virtual infrastructures for distributed scientific computing. The resulting infrastructure is evaluated using a computational experiment from molecular systems biology.

Kurt Vanmechelen, Silas De Munck and Jan Broeckhove. Conservative Distributed Discrete Event Simulation on Amazon EC2

Abstract: A discrete-event simulator's ability to distribute the execution of a simulation model allows one to deal with the memory limitations of a single computational resource, and thereby increase the scale or level of detail at which models can be studied. In addition, distribution has the potential to reduce the round trip time of a simulation by incorporating multiple computational cores into the simulation's execution. However, such gains can be voided by the overhead that time synchronization protocols introduce. These protocols are required to prevent the occurrence of causality errors during a parallel execution of a simulation. The overhead depends on the protocol, characteristics of the simulation model, and the architecture of the computational resources used. Recently, infrastructure-as-a-service offerings in cloud computing have introduced flexibility in acquiring computational resources on a pay-as-you-go basis. At present, it is unclear to what extent these offerings are suited for the distributed execution of discrete-event simulations, and how the characteristics of different resource types impact the runtime performance of distributed simulations. In this paper we investigate this issue, and assess the performance of different conservative time synchronization protocols on a range of cloud resource types that are currently available on Amazon EC2.

Dragoicea Monica, Laurentiu Bucur, Hessam Sarjoughian and Wei Tek Tsai. On HLA-based Service Oriented Simulation: an Integrative Approach

Abstract: The High Level Architecture (HLA) has become the de-facto standard in simulation and simulation interoperability. This paper discusses HLA and its possible integration in a Service-Oriented simulation framework. First it presents the technology roadmap of HLA since its first introduction together with several implementations in the industry today. The paper then focuses on the integration of an HLA RTI in the Service-Oriented Framework of the FCINT smart building project.

Emilio Mancini, Gabriel Wainer, Khaldoon Al-Zoubi and Olivier Dalle. Simulation in the Cloud Using Handheld Devices

Abstract: In recent years, numerous applications have been deployed into mobile devices. However, until now, there have been no attempts to run simulations on handheld devices. We want investigate different architectures for running and managing simulations on handheld devices, and putting the simulation services in the Cloud. We propose a hybrid simulation and visualization approach, where a dedicated mobile application is running on the client side and the RISE simulation server is hosted in the Cloud. In particular, with our prototype, we explore the remote management of a simulation tool using a dedicated native application running on an Android Smartphone, and showing the evolution of a simulation model for a forest fire spread, mashing-up the generated graphics with online GIS services.

Ernest Page, Laurie Litwin, Matthew McMahon, Brian Wickham, Mike Shadid and Elizabeth Chang. Goal-Directed Grid-Enabled Computing for Legacy Simulations

Abstract: We describe a middleware framework conceived to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of existing simulation applications by providing three capabilities: (1) access to grid-based and cloud-based execution, (2) access to advanced Design of Experiments (DOE) methodologies such as simulation-based optimization, and (3) access to robust data processing and visualization. The framework has been applied to a variety of simulations in both commercial and open source programming languages employing both discrete and continuous modeling formalisms. A key design objective is to minimize the workload necessary to adapt a simulation for use with the framework. User experience to date reveals that the learning curve for the framework is reasonable, but further automation of key tasks would enhance the framework's utility.

Shaun Murphy, Scott Gallant, Chris Gaughan and Manny Diego. U.S. Army Modeling and Simulation Executable Architecture Deployment Cloud Virtualization Strategy

Abstract: Our research has included leveraging Virtualization Technologies to provide integration, configuration and execution relief of Modeling & Simulation (M&S) event planning, instantiation and analysis. We have achieved this through a single service that is used to deploy and execute stand-alone applications as well as separate, but cooperative, applications on a dynamic virtual machine-based cloud. This use of virtualization technology shows significant cost savings in reducing the human effort for integration, test and execution by providing a powerful virtual machine environment that combines new and existing applications and their configurations. Our effort eliminates the time needed to manually configure and execute these applications on physical hardware once they are captured in the system.

Judicaël Ribault and Gabriel Wainer. Simulation Processes In The Cloud for Emergency Planning

Abstract: In recent years, various environmental disasters (tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires and nuclear incidents) have caused numerous losses in lives and infrastructure. In such emergency, remote access to the simulation resources can increase the emergency response success. We propose a new architecture based on the RISE simulation services middleware and on Taverna workflow to execute the entire simulation process into the Cloud. We present its use through an emergency flooding scenario use case in which emergency crew can order a new simulation and visualize result on GoogleEarth.

Sebastien Cipiere, David Hill and Lydia Maigne. Development of a metamodel for medical database management on a grid network

Abstract: Centralized management of patient data is no more a viable solution. In many countries, patient identification restrictions due to privacy laws implies developing thorough mechanism to avoid duplicates and information loss. In this paper we present a work in progress dealing with a grid distributed medical data base.GPU based identification algorithms for disease surveillance, medical data exchange and epidemiological analyses..