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CERTI and jcerti for C++ and Java federates

CERTI is written in C++ and its installation is enough if the federates are also writen in C++. For federates written in Java, as Ptolemy federates, it is necessary to also use the jcerti library. First you need to install CERTI, then install jcerti.

About jcerti

The current version of jcerti.jar (on Sept, 2020) is the code from the branch br_jcerti1516e, compliant with both DoD HLA 1.3 and with IEEE 1516-v2010 or 1516E (Evolved).

The file jcerti.jar is shipped with Ptolemy at $PTII/lib.

You can find here more information about jcerti.

Installing CERTI on Linux or Mac

You need g++, git and libxml2-dev. This script build-certi1516e.sh install CERTI on $HOME/pthla/hla1516e/certi-tools. It also install cmake, flex, and bison if you do not have it The source code is in $HOME/pthla/hla1516e/certi4-0.0.

You can find here how to run a CERTI demo.

• CERTI is now compiled and installed in the $HOME/pthla/hla1516e/certi-tools folder defined as $CERTI_HOME folder. CERTI provides a script to set the environment (global variables, binaries, etc) to allow the correct launch of RTIG process, RTIA process and federates. To set the CERTI environment properly in a terminal run the command:

or put the above command in your /.bash_profile file (Mac) or /.bashrc file (Linux).

Remark MacOS (from https://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/ptexternal/wiki/Main/HLA): System Integrity Protection (SIP) was introduced in El Capitan in an effort to increase the security of the Mac OS. On a machine where SIP is Enabled (to check reboot, hold Command-R, run csrutil status. See How to modify system integrity protection in El Capitan.) it can have problems with the dynamic libraries.

Main CERTI Environment Variables (see also CERTI doc)

• CERTI_HOME: the directory where CERTI is installed, e.g. $HOME/pthla/hla1516e/certi-tools. It is used by the RTIG in order to look for FOM (Federation Object Model) files.
• CERTI_FOM_PATH: provides the default directory where the FED files (HLA 1.3) and XML files (HLA 1516E) are. This variable is needed if the FED file is not in the directory where the RTIG is launched. The variable may contain a list of paths separated by ":".
• CERTI_HOST: provides the IP address of the machine that hosts the RTIG. As soon as it starts the RTIA will try to connect to the RTIG running on CERTI_HOST (or "localhost" if the variable is not defined or void).

When running

The default values (when CERTI was installed as suggested above) are the following ones:

CERTI_HOME=$HOME/pthla/hla1516e/certi-tools, CERTI_FOM_PATH=$CERTI_HOME/share/federations and CERTI_HOST=localhost.

When CERTI Environment Variables must be changed?

• CERTI_HOST: If the federation will run in your computer, but the RTIG will run in another computer named otherComputer, you need to set (in your computer) CERTI_HOST to the otherComputer or to its IP number:

• CERTI_FOM_PATH: You can add the absolute-path (where the FED file is located) to CERTI_FOM_PATH variable:

Remarks:

• When all the federates of a federation are running in the same computer as the rtig (as in Figure 1), you must leave the default value CERTI_HOST=localhost. You do not need to set this variable to the computer name or to the IP number (but you can if you want).
• Let be host-rtig the name of the computer where the rtig run. When some (or all) federates run in other computer(s), as in Figure 2, then all these other computers must set CERTI_HOST=host-rtig.
• For knowing the name of a computer, type the command line hostname in a terminal.

It can happen that (FIXME because of the LAN, or firewall??) the name obtained by executing the command hostname is not known. In this case, in all the computers running a federate (from a same federation) try to set CERTI_HOST to the IP number of host-rtig.

Where does the RTIG seek for the FED file or XML file?

As explained in CERTI doc CERTI seeks for a FED file in this order:

1. In the directory where the RTIG is launched
2. In the directories whose paths are provided by CERTI_FOM_PATH
3. In $CERTI_HOME/share/federations directory

• As the $CERTI_HOME/share/federations directory is the path by default in CERTI, the simplest way is always copy your .fed files in this directory.
• If you cannot write in $CERTI_HOME/share/federations directory then add the path of the directory where the .fed file or .xml file is contained to CERTI_FOM_PATH.

Remark: When using a federate writen in Java, the API jcerti is needed.

Testing CERTI 1516E in one computer (localhost)

CERTI provides a C++ billard demo for testing a HLA federation in $HOME/pthla/hla1516e/certi4-0.0/test/Billard/ folder. In some Linux

• Open 3 terminals. If you did not sourced myCERTI_env.sh in your ~/bash_profile (~/.bashrc on Linux), run in each terminal the command above
• Notice that after running myCERTI_env.sh, $CERTI_HOST=localhost
• Go to the first terminal and execute the middeware RTIG:

• Go to second terminal and call a billard federate named "1" (-n name) and HIT ENTER only once. A small white graphical interface representing a billard table pops out.

Remark: If the graphical interface does not appear, replace billard by billard-nogui in the commands below:

• Do not HIT ENTER yet when the following message appears:

• Go to the third terminal and call a billard federate named "2" (-n name) and HIT ENTER.

• The following message appears:

• Go back to second terminal (where federate "1" was launched) and now press "ENTER".

If the demo works, the "billard table" shows the movement of two billard balls; In Terminal 3 you have several new messages including this one showing that an object instance of class Bille named "1" was discovered:

And in Terminal 2, this message showing that an object instance of class Bille named "2" was discovered:

There is also a Ptolemy billiard demo in $PTII/org/hlacerti/demo/Billard.

Remark: The rtig can run for different lauchings of a same simulation. But if a federation is not ended properly (destroyed) then a new run can provoke an error. In this case, you need to kill the rtig process, looking for his process number:

Testing CERTI 1516E in two computers

HLA standard targets distributed simulation, and so do CERTI, a HLA compliant tool.

• In each computer, run in a terminal the command line ifconfig for having the name of the computer and/or its IP address.
• Check if the two computers C1 and C2 are connected to a same LAN. Let us call their IP address IP1 and IP2, respectively. Notice that you can also use a ssh -X host-name.

Scenario 1: Launch the rtig in IP1, and all C++ billard federates in IP2.

• Check if there is a firewall on port 60400 (PORT_TCP_RTIG) on each computer. The first command below is a succesfull test:

• This message indicates there is a firewall that must be removed:

• If both computers succed to the test above, go to C2 and set CERTI_HOST as C1 (where the rtig run):

• On C1: launch the rtig

• On C2: Open two terminal, and launch the two C++ billard federates following the procedure above, except the first one (Launch RTIG in first terminal) since you already launched the rtig on C1.

If the simulation does not work, check the issue discussed here.

Scenario 2: Launching the rtig and a federate in IP1, and the other C++ billard federates in IP2.

• On C1: Open 2 terminals. If you did not sourced myCERTI_env.sh in your ~/bash_profile (~/.bashrc on Linux), run in each terminal the command above
• Notice that after running myCERTI_env.sh, $CERTI_HOST=localhost
• Go to the first terminal and execute the middeware RTIG:

• Go to second terminal on C1 and call a billard federate named "1" (-n name) and HIT ENTER only once. A small white graphical interface representing a billard table pops out.

Remark: If the interface does not appear, replace billard by billard-nogui in the commands below:

• Do not HIT ENTER yet when the following message appears:

• On C2: open a terminal, set CERTI_HOST and call a billard federate named "2" (-n name) and HIT ENTER.

• The following message appears:

• Go back to the second terminal on C1 (where federate "1" was launched) and now press "ENTER".

If the demo works, the "billard table" shows the movement of two billard balls; In C2 you have several new messages including this one showing that an object instance of class Bille named "1" was discovered:

And in C1, Terminal 2, this message showing that an object instance of class Bille named "2" was discovered:

If the simulation does not work, check the issue discussed here.

Testing CERTI 1.3

The procedure for testing federates using HLA 1.3 is the same as in the tests above. You need to replace in the commands

by

and

by

Recall that if billard does not work, you need to use billard-nogui.