HLA

The HLA standard was developed to promote interoperability among federated simulations and across functional M&S communities and to make possible the reuse of simulation components across federations, functional M&S communities, and runtime infrastructures.  Using HLA, computer simulations can communicate with other computer simulations regardless of the computing platforms.

The Standard 

HLA consists of the following components:

1. An Interface Specification document that defines how HLA compliant simulators interact with the Runtime Infrastructure (RTI),
2. An Object Model Template (OMT) that specifies what information is communicated between simulations and how it is documented,
3. HLA rules that simulations must obey to be compliant to the standard.

Communication between simulations is managed by an RTI that provides a programming library and an application programming interface (API) compliant to the interface specifications.  An HLA compliant simulation is referred to as a federate. Multiple simulations connected via the RTI using a common Object Model Template (OMT) are referred to as a federation.  HLA is an IEEE 1516 standard.

Presagis HLA Support 

Presagis software began using and supporting the HLA standard in 1998.  Vega Prime as well as the entire STAGE family of simulation products support and handle this standard that promotes better interoperability and reusability.  In 2007, SIM OneNet began offering greater support for HLA with the goal of helping existing legacy 3rd party simulations achieve some HLA or even DIS capabilities in order to promote interoperability and reusability within the Modeling and Simulation industry.