Protocols for Handling Messages Between Simulation Computers

Practical Simulator Network (PSimNet) is a set of data communication protocols designed especially for use in handling messages between computers that are engaging cooperatively in real time or nearly real time training simulations. In a typical application, computers that provide individualized training at widely dispersed locations would communicate,by use of PSimNet, with a central host computer that would provide a common computational simulation environment and common data. Originally intended for use in supporting interfaces between training computers and computers that simulate the responses of spacecraft scientific payloads, PSimNet could be especially well suited for a variety of other applications — for example, group automobile driver training in a classroom. Another potential application might lie in networking of automobile diagnostic computers at repair facilities to a central computer that would compile the expertise of numerous technicians and engineers and act as an expert consulting technician.