Roccom: an object-oriented, data-centric software integration framework for multiphysics simulations

ABSTRACT

We describe an object-oriented software integration framework, Roccom, abstracted from our five years of experience in developing a complex, integrated code for rocket simulation. Roccom provides a flexible mechanism for inter-module data exchange and function invocation in parallel multiphysics simulations. It is designed to minimize user effort and code changes for integration, facilitate interoperability between different programming languages (in particular, C++ and Fortran 90), and enable plug-and-play of different implementations of physics and computer science modules in an integrated system. Its unique abstraction of distributed objects allows cleaner inter-module interfaces and maximizes concurrency in development of different modules. Our framework also provides a set of reusable service utilities that allow rapid prototyping of various coupling algorithms without sacrificing performance.

REFERENCES

• 1: Gabrielle Allen , Thomas Dramlitsch , Ian Foster , Nicholas T. Karonis , Matei Ripeanu , Edward Seidel , Brian Toonen, Supporting efficient execution in heterogeneous distributed computing environments with cactus and globus, Proceedings of the 2001 ACM/IEEE conference on Supercomputing (CDROM), p.52-52, November 10-16, 2001, Denver, Colorado [doi>10.1145/582034.582086]
• 2: Rob Armstrong , Dennis Gannon , Al Geist , Katarzyna Keahey , Scott Kohn , Lois McInnes , Steve Parker , Brent Smolinski, Toward a Common Component Architecture for High-Performance Scientific Computing, Proceedings of the The Eighth IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing, p.13, August 03-06, 1999
• 3: Federico Bassetti , David Brown , Kei Davis , William Henshaw , Dan Quinlan, Overture: an object-oriented framework for high performance scientific computing, Proceedings of the 1998 ACM/IEEE conference on Supercomputing (CDROM), p.1-9, November 07-13, 1998, San Jose, CA
• 4: Milind A. Bhandarkar , Laxmikant V. Kalé, A Parallel Framework for Explicit FEM, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on High Performance Computing, p.385-394, December 17-20, 2000
• 5: K. G. Budge and J. S. Peery. Experiences developing ALEGRA: A C++ coupled physics framework. In Workshop on Object Oriented Methods for Interoperable Scientific and Engineering Computing, Oct. 1998.
• 6: H. Hakonen, V. Leppanen, T. Raita, T. Salakoski, and J. Teuhola. Improving object integrity and preventing side effects via deeply immutable references. In Proceedings of Sixth Fenno-Ugric Symposium on Software Technology, FUSST'99, pages 139--150, 1999.
• 7: X. Jiao and M. T. Heath. Efficient and robust algorithm for overlaying nonmatching surface meshes. In 10th International Meshing Roundtable, pages 281--292, 2001.
• 8: Barbara Liskov , Miguel Castro , Liuba Shrira , Atul Adya, Providing Persistent Objects in Distributed Systems, Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, p.230-257, June 14-18, 1999
• 9: K. London, J. Dongarra, S. Moore, P. Mucci, K. Seymour, and T. Spencer. End-user tools for application performance analysis using hardware counters. In International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems, Aug. 2001.
• 10: Xiaosong Ma , Xiangmin Jiao , Michael Campbell , Marianne Winslett, Flexible and Efficient Parallel I/O for Large-Scale Multi-Component Simulations, Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing, p.255.1, April 22-26, 2003
• 11: Michael Mattsson , Jan Bosch , Mohamed E. Fayad, Framework integration problems, causes, solutions, Communications of the ACM, v.42 n.10, p.80-87, Oct. 1999 [doi>10.1145/317665.317679]
• 12: J. Ray, H. N. Najm, and S. Lefantzi. CCA-component based simulation of flows on adaptively refined structured meshes, SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, Feb. 2003.
• 13: J. Reynders et al. POOMA: A framework for scientific simulations on parallel architectures. In G. Wilson and P. Lu, editors, Parallel Programming Using C++, pages 553--594, 1996.
• 14: Perdita Stevens , Rob Pooley, Using Uml: Software Engineering with Objects and Components, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1999
• 15: L. M. Taylor. Sierra: A software framework for developing massively parallel, adaptivity, multi-physics, finite element codes. In G. Wilson and P. Lu, editors, International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications, June 1999.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.7 Simulation Support Systems
          Subjects: Environments

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
      D.1.5 Object-oriented Programming
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures
            Subjects: Domain-specific architectures; Data abstraction
        D.2.12 Interoperability
            Subjects: Distributed objects

General Terms:
Design, Management

Keywords:
middleware, multiphysics simulation, object-oriented design, problem solving environments, system integration