Abstract simulator for the parallel DEVS formalism

Abstract

A parallel discrete-event simulation (DEVS) formalism which exploits the parallelism of transition collisions in the simulation of DEVS models is considered. We present a design for the abstract simulator needed to prove the formalism's soundness and to serve as a reference for implementation. The abstract simulator is composed of cooperating simulation engines, (simulators and coordinators) that use bag-like messages to synchronize the parallel activities that are distributed across autonomous asynchronous processors. The approach suggests engines that are efficient in both sequential and distributed/parallel environments. After describing the abstract simulator we briefly discuss a prototype implementation that affords a high degree of flexibility by mechanizing the "closure under coupling" property of the parallel DEVS formalism and the characteristics of object-oriented systems.<>