This briefing was given at I/ITSEC 2015 (30 Nov - 03 Dec 2015, Orlando, USA) and provides an introduction and overview of NATO's Modelling and Simulation Group 136 (MSG-136). MSG-136 investigates service-based approaches in context of M&S, commonly known as "M&S as a Service" (MSaaS).

1. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 1
NATO MSG-136: M&S as a Service
Modelling and Simulation as a Service:
Rapid deployment of interoperable and credible simulation environments

2. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 2
MSG-136 Basics
• MSG-136 “Modelling and Simulation (M&S) as a Service
(MSaaS) – Rapid deployment of interoperable and credible
simulation environments”
• Focus on M&S domain services and necessary organizational
aspects
• M&S Services (e.g., domain services like Synthetic
Environment Service (SES), Scenario Management
Services, and others to be identified by MSG-136)
• Organizational M&S Services Perspective
• Term: Oct 2014 – Oct 2017

3. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 3
MSG-136 is focal activity for MSaaS efforts
MSG-086 “Simulation Interoperability”
(DEU, Matthias Hahn, Robert Siegfried)
MSG-136
“Modelling and
Simulation
(M&S) as a
Service
(MSaaS)”
Results from national
projects
Objectives
1.1, 1.2, and 2.1
NATO STANAGs 4662, 4663, 4664
ISO/IEC 18023, 18024, 18025, 18026, 18041, 18042
ET-34 “M&S as a Service”
(ACT, Angel San Jose Martin)
MSG-071“Missionland”
(NLD, Arjan Lemmers)
GSD PDG, RIEDP PDG
DNBL
MSG-131“M&S as a Service”
(USA/DEU, B. Miller/R. Siegfried)
MSG-106 “SPHINX”
(FRA, Laurent Tard)
MSG-128 “MTDS”
(FRA, Jean-Pierre Faye)
ET-35 and MSG-134
“Compliance Testing”

4. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 4
Large community interest
16 nations confirmed participation
6 NATO confirmed participation
ACT JFTC JWC M&S CoE NCIA JCBRN
CoE
AUS CAN DEU DNK ESP FRA GBR ITA
NLD NOR POL PRT ROU SWE TUR USA

5. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 5
MSaaS implementation has 4 components
“Improving Alliance Performance
Through Persistent and On-Demand
Simulation Support”
MSaaS
Operational
Integration
MSaaS
Technical
Architecture
MSaaS
Exercise and
Experimentation
MSaaS Portal

6. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 6
MSaaS Roadmap (under development!)
2025
Specification
Phase
Development
Phase 1
Operational
Use
2015 2018 2020
NMSG-136
TRL 4 TRL 6TRL 5 TRL 7 TRL 8
Implementation
Phase 2
Operational
Use
FOC
IOC

7. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 7
Creating a Persistent National Ecosystem
A UK Perspective, aligned & integrated with NATO

8. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 8
Current landscape
• Constrained to pre-defined products
and standards
• Limited architectures
• Lack agility required to support
future aspirations for LVC training
• Complex distributed UK and
International environments
Target landscape (post 2020...)
• Agile, extensible, persistent and
compliant
• Rapid & flexible capability
• No human interaction at a service
provider level.
• Access to resources via standard
mechanisms /client platforms
Enable the delivery of a single environment,
such that users can create capability from
modelling and simulation components and
services which are inherently interoperable
UK Vision (Science & Technology)

9. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 9
MSaaS
Ecosystem
Runtime
Services
Administrative
Services
Deployment
Service
Orchestration
Service
Discovery
Service
Services
Ecosystem
Owner
Simulation
Specifier
Service
Provider
Simulation
User
Other
Services

10. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 10
Define
Simulation
Environment
Objectives
Step 1
Perform
Conceptual
Analysis
Step 2
Design
Simulation
Environment
Step 3
Develop
Simulation
Environment
Step 4
Integrate and
Test Simulation
Environment
Step 5
Execute
Simulation
Step 6
Analyse Data
and Evaluate
Results
Step 7
Discovery
Orchestration
Deployment
Distributed Simulation Engineering & Execution Process (DSEEP)
Registry / Repository
Meta Data

11. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 11
Registry
Discovery
- Review requirements/scenario
- Search Registry
- Identify candidate applications/
services
- Review Service Level Agreements
Repository
CGF Data LoggerRUI Map Server
RTI
Exercise
Control
Discovery Portal
Get
Capabilities
Document
Discovery: Overview

12. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 12
• Support reuse of products and
services
• Browsable/searchable catalogue for
users to see what is available -
before contacting Front Door, if
necessary
• Access to knowledge that
products/services exist – not
necessarily to the products/services
themselves
• Connected to other registries to
provide “one stop shop”
• Portal tailored to user
Discovery: Vision

13. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 13
Orchestration
- Define federation agreements
- Assess suitability of
applications/services
- Identify modifications
- Define Simulation Composition
Repository
RUI RTICGF Data Logger Map ServerExercise
Control
Orchestration Tool
Registry Repository
Simulation
Composition
Orchestration

14. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 14
Repository
Deployment
- Access Simulation Composition
- Access metadata for Services from Registry
- Check availability of Assets/Services
- Download VMs, Apps, Services from Repository
- Upload VMs, Apps, Services to the Cloud(s)
- Perform License Management
- Start VMs, Apps, Persistent Services
- Display Deployment Status
- Manage Clean up / Un-deploy
Simulator
s
Live
System
s
Live
Platforms
Registry
PaaS
IaaS
(Virtual
Machine)
PaaS
IaaS
(Virtual
Machine)
IaaS
(Virtual
Machine)
PaaS
Map ServerRUI RTI
Exercise
Control
Deployment

15. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 15
UK MSaaS Ecosystem – Prototype

16. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 16
NATO MSG-136: M&S as a Service
Modelling and Simulation as a Service:
Rapid deployment of interoperable and credible simulation environments

17. I/ITSEC 2015: NATO MSG-136 (M&S as a Service) Slide 17
Cloud Model Selection - Public, Community, Private, Hybrid
Cloud Service Model - IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, Service Provider
Migrating Apps - Which Apps to deploy in the Cloud
Design for the Cloud - Scalable, Secure, Dynamic, Defined API
Licensing - Usage-based, Per User, Per Device, Enterprise License
Technical Issues - Service outages will always happen
Connectivity - Reliable network connection
Cost Management - Track and monitor usage
Moving from IaaS to PaaS - Is this the future?
Considerations when deploying to the Cloud
?