The World Wide Web has had an huge influence on the computing field in general as well as simulation in particular (e.g., Web-Based Simulation). A new wave of development based upon XML has started. Two of the most interesting aspects of this development are the Semantic Web and Web Services. This paper examines the synergy between Web service technology and simulation. In one direction, Web service processes can be simulated for the purpose of correctinglimproving the design. In the other direction, simulation modelskomponents can be built out of Web services. Work on seamlessly using simulation as a part of Web service composition and process design, as well as on using Web services to re-build the JSIM Web-based simulation environment is highlighted.

Several fields have created ontologies for their subdomains. For example, the biological sciences have developed extensive ontologies such as the Gene Ontology, which is considered a great success. Ontologies could provide similar advantages to the Modeling and Simulation community. They provide a way to establish common vocabularies and capture knowledge about a particular domain with community-wide agreement. Ontologies can support significantly improved (semantic) search and browsing, integration of heterogeneous information sources, and improved knowledge discovery capabilities. This paper discusses the design and development of an ontology for Modeling and Simulation called the Discrete-event Modeling Ontology (DeMO), and it presents prototype applications that demonstrate various uses and benefits that such an ontology may provide to the Modeling and Simulation community.

In modeling and simulation, the need for interoperability can be between simulation models or, more broadly, within simulation environments. For example, simulation of biochemical pathways for glycan biosynthesis will need access to glycomics knowledge bases such as the GlycO, EnzyO and ReactO ontologies and bioinformatics resource/databases. Traditionally, developers have studied these information sources and written custom simulation code with hardlinks into, for example, databases. Our research explores a technique which allows developers to create a conceptual model using domain ontologies, and then use alignment and mapping information between the domain ontologies and the Discrete-event Modeling Ontology (DeMO) to create DeMO instances which represent a model that conforms to a particular simulation world view. Once the DeMO instances have been created, a code generator can be used to produce an executable simulation model. This paper discusses several situations in which DeMO can support interoperability but focuses primarily on interoperability between domain ontologies and DeMO.

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