Semantic Fidelity Reckoning (SFR) extends and generalizes Dead Reckoning from Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) to convey, detect, and reconcile fidelity specification disparities among distributed analytic simulators. SFR is based on an emergent Semantic Fidelity (SF) paradigm originally aimed at normalizing fidelity specifications for computable models within analytic simulation systems. SF and SFR were examined in this study toward semantic interoperability and semantic validation & verification in distributed simulation ―not only among analytic simulators but also to enable the handshake across digital engineering (DE) domains such as between phenomena models of orbital mechanics and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) system architecture descriptive models of satellites and missiles. DE implies a dependency on semantic interoperability (i.e., information transmission; unambiguous contextual meaning in data exchange) which remains elusive among modeling & simulation communities-of-interest and DE enterprise efforts. Semantic interoperability has been riddled by arbitrary and subjective generic taxonomies, so-called domain ontologies, and parochial data models that focus on local needs ―all of which leads to information silos which require complex, costly, and often untenable cross-domain ontology/model matching algorithms to reconcile semantic gaps, conflicts, and contradictions. SF is grounded on a novel taxonomy that borrows from phylogenic systematics and other formal methods to promote a consistent and repeatable ontological approach within and across domains toward mitigating ambiguity and the need for costly ontology matching. The study involved a rudimentary distributed-simulator experiment of an anti-satellite missile intercepting a low Earth orbit satellite to demonstrate and provide results of error propagation of missile trajectory and satellite orbit due to disparate model fidelities as well as error mitigation with SF/SFR. Results also show how SF specifications enable the handshake between the analytic simulators and the Constraint Blocks of GENESYS/MBSE descriptive models which are traced to the MBSE operational environment system requirements, design, and risk among other element types.
Keywords
ADAPTABILITY,CONCEPTUAL MODELING,DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION,DISTRIBUTED,ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY,EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES,FIDELITY REQUIREMENTS,INTEROPERABILITY,M&S,VERIFICATION, VALIDATION AND ACCREDITATION (VV&A)
Additional Keywords
semantic interoperability, simulation fidelity, digital engineering, model-based systems engineering