Data sharing for distributed simulation remains a difficult problem, especially when dealing with stovepipes or proprietary solutions. As a M&S standards development organization, SISO (the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization) provides open and standardized solutions to address M&S data sharing issues.

Within SISO, the Reuse and Interoperation of Environmental Data and Processes (RIEDP) specifications simplify the terrain data sharing problems by providing standardized rules, methods, and clear semantics for exchanging data from key stages of the simulation terrain database generation process.

RIEDP concepts and components are embodied in two SISO products: the RIEDP Data Model Foundations and the RIEDP Detailed Features Description.

This tutorial provides an overview of the general terrain database creation process, how RIEDP solves the M&S terrain data sharing problem, and how RIEDP promotes reusability of database generation efforts, while leveraging commonly used GIS and simulation data formats. The tutorial focuses on the fundamental terrain/environment questions that LVC simulation federations have to address.

The key RIEDP concepts covered in this tutorial include the RIEDP Reference Process Model (RPM), the RIEDP Reference Abstract Data Model (RADM), and the use of semantic constructs and attributes to share and exchange environmental data. The tutorial will also highlight how existing formats are leveraged in RIEDP data sharing, data organization on media, use of dedicated metadata constructs, and a set of profiles for specific application sub-domains.