: In the field of co-simulation, the construction of a bridge between different simulators and the solution of problems like synchronization and data translation are some of the main challenges. This paper discusses the advantages of the HLA (High Level Architecture) standard to solve these problems and presents a generic architecture to support environments for geographically distributed co-simulation, called Distributed Co-simulation Backbone (DCB), which is based on the HLA. This architecture is very flexible and does not enforce code modifications to the simulators to be integrated into the environment. Key words: distributed co-simulation, simulation backbone, cooperation, HLA