Military Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy

US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command

Douglas Maxwell, MSME

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

Military Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy

Virtual World Technology Strategic Applicationsdouglas.b.maxwell@us.army.mil407-208-5097

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

2

Overview

• What is MOSES?• Why was MOSES created?• What value does MOSES bring to military

training applications?• What are the down sides?• What does the MOSES architecture look like?

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

3

What is MOSES

The Military Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy is an exploratory effort designed to evaluate the ability of the Open Simulator to provide independent and secured access to a virtual world.

Year One Goals:1. Provide a completely independent virtual world capability. Runs in an enclaved

network, capable of multiple levels of secured processing.2. Provide a stable in-kind Second Life®-like environment.3. Provide guidance to other organizations wishing to replicate the MOSES results.4. Link with other organization in a hyper-grid manner to demonstrate external

growth and scalability.

Next Steps:5. Secured/Encrypted Communications6. User Authentication with certificates and CAC7. Larger Scale User Support8. Integration/Conformance with the DoD Virtual World Framework

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

4

Why Was MOSES Created?

• Replacement to the Second Life® Enterprise Project• Effort to preserve significant investment in the SLE platform.• Continue research started in the SLE platform.

SLE: 20 Feb 2011

8 Concurrent Sims

VOIP

MOSES: 26 Mar 2012

182 Concurrent Sims

VOIP

MESH, Media on a Prim

30+ Gb Assets

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

5

What value does MOSES bring to military training applications?

Breaks the traditional paradigm of modeling and simulation.

• Art Pipeline• Computationally Steerable

– The scripting language can enact changes to objects without restarting simulation.• Out of the Box External Communications Mechanisms

– Everything in the environment is an interactive object, capable of being driven by external behavior models.

• Every Object can connect to an external data source.• Flexible Terrain

– Real world terrain sources can be used.– Terrain is deformable while simulation is running; May be restored via scripting

• Persistent Virtual Environment– Capable of High Availability and Uptimes

• Multiple Communications Options– Point to point chat, point to many chat– Point to point VOIP, point to many VOIP – can replicate military radio behavior

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

6

What are the down sides?

• Insecure communications between client and server. – Phase II of the MOSES project will look at 100% encryption of all data

transmitted/received.• Content is produced to the client “on demand”.

– Susceptible to network lag.• Physics engine needs work.

– Phase II of the MOSES project will experiment with alternate physics engines.

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

7

What does the MOSES architecture look like?

Ope

nSim

Ser

ver 1

-20

Ope

nSim

Ser

ver 2

1-40

Ope

nSim

Ser

ver 4

1-60

Ope

nSim

Ser

ver n

Rob

ust /

Mon

it

Mum

ble

Ser

ver

Firewall / NAT Translation

MOSES

Client 1

MOSES

Client 2

MOSES

Client 3

MOSES

Client m

…

…

STTC Network

Unknown Network

(Internet)

MyS

QL

Ser

ver

SR

AS

Ser

ver

Firewall not part

of MOSES system

but part of location

infrastructure

Hypervisor VM Manager

Host Hardware:

4x12 Core

512 Gb Ram

Typical VM Guest:

8 Core

64 Gb Ram

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

8

Lessons Learned

• Created preconfigured client.– Subject matter experts may not be technical.

• Network is most precious resource.• Community is critical for sustainment.

– Regular office hours– Assistance with management

• Adopt flexible culture– Plan ahead for growth, network/computing hardware– Listen to open source developers to help make informed decisions

SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation & Training Technology Center

*Unclassified – Approved For Public Release*

9

Project Information

MOSES Website:

http://fvwc.army.mil/moses/

MOSES Account Page:

http://107.7.21.240:8002/wifi

MOSES Wiki:

https://107.7.21.233/redmine