As any gamer will tell you, it is compelling to connect simulations and play with other actual human participants, whether in the next room or on the next continent. Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) is an enabling technology that connects military training and engineering simulations for that purpose.

Successful research in the 1980s led to an international effort to standardize a network protocol for linking military training and engineering simulations. DIS was the result, using the IEEE standards process to create a technically sound and widely accepted protocol. IEEE 1278^TM-1995 and additions in 1998 were the first full DIS standards that contained the protocol and rules for real-time simulation interoperability of military land, sea, and air platforms, weapon interactions, radar, radio, IFF, laser designators, underwater acoustics, logistics, simulation management functions, and more.

The success of DIS expanded into the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) in 1996. SISO took over the development of the DIS standard and launched a much wider range of simulation standards. The 2000s saw the development of the next round of improvements, resulting in IEEE 1278.1^TM-2012. Continuing development within SISO is working toward the next version, referred to as Version 8, expected to be completed in the mid-2020s.

This tutorial explains how DIS achieves real-time high-fidelity interoperability over best-effort networks. The basic concept and some of the technical details will be introduced to give students a foundation for starting and expanding the implementation and use DIS in their simulations. The standards process, history, and future directions of DIS are also presented. Emphasis on DIS Version 8 will review current developments and upcoming improvements to the DIS standard.