Practical aspects of the DesignDEVS simulation environment

Abstract

DesignDEVS is a simulation development environment based on the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism. This paper provides an in-depth overview of the software while focusing on the practical considerations influencing its design. Practitioners who stand to benefit from systems engineering will approach formalism-based simulation tools with little knowledge of the underlying theory. It is therefore important that theoretical principles, such as the separation of model and simulator, be emphasized by the user interface. Other practical aspects of DesignDEVS include the simplicity of atomic model code, a focus on coupling for collaboration purposes, the enforcement of essential modeling constraints, and a reliance on best practices in cases where strict enforcement might inconvenience users. In DesignDEVS, an issue we refer to as the Insidious Pointer Problem is aggressively tackled through run-time error handling. By contrast, the separation of output values from state transitions is left as a best practice for the sake of user convenience. The design decisions explained in this paper are relevant to developers of other formalism-based tools seeking widespread adoption of scalable modeling and simulation practices.

Advanced Cell-DEVS modeling applications: a legacy of Norbert Giambiasi

“…CD ++ is a tool built to implement DEVS and Cell-DEVS models. 7 There are numerous tools, and some recent efforts include DesignDEVS, 75 DEVS-SOA, 76 PythonDEVS, 77 and others. [78][79][80] The tool allows models to be defined according to the specifications introduced in the previous section.…”

RPDEVS Abstract Simulator

“…According to [9], it frequently happens that calculations necessary for the output event in λ are also necessary for the computation of the next state and thus, have to be repeated in δ int . In the classic DEVS simulator DesignDEVS [10], they even merge the two functions λ and δ int to prevent unnecessary recalculations. This is not possible for RPDEVS as λ may have to be called multiple times before the state transition can be conducted.…”

The advances in the state of the art of modeling and simulation: Discrete event system specification (DEVS)

“…The paper presents the design and evaluation of the system. The paper by Goldstein et al 10 is on the DesignDEVS simulation development environment, which is based on the DEVS formalism. The environment is intended for collaborative and multidisciplinary design and model development.…”