The introduction of Sun's Jini technology and its innovative concept of spontaneous, "just-in-time" federations of services will fundamentally change the way software-intensive systems are developed, deployed, and utilized since it represents the next logical step in the progression and fusion of distributed component architectures with network technology. Jini's "federation of services" concept is consistent with the DMSO High Level Architecture's concept of federations and provides the additional advantage of widespread commercial acceptance and adoption. The symbiotic combination of Jini and HLA technologies represents a tremendous opportunity: Force XXI mission context modeling and simulation benefits from the application of advanced commercial-sector distributed component integration technologies, and the commercial-sector benefits from the application of high-fidelity formal semantics and runtime dynamics provided by HLA interoperation technologies. The overall objective of this effort is to design a Collaborative Environment based on the cooperative application of Jini and HLA technologies for the integration and interoperation of distributed simulators, simulations, models, tools, and databases supporting Force XXI mission context materiel development and evaluation.
Benefits: A Jini/HLA Collaborative Environment has extraordinary dual-use potential: In addition to its tremendous value to Simulation-based Acquisition (SBA) and design, the Collaborative Environment is of potentially greater value in the commercial sector where it is ideally suited to the integration of enterprise-class applications and databases, an expanding $1 Billion market
