Metadata Specification for DEVS simulation models

Abstract

Lack of documentation for simulation models impedes their shareability, reusability and composability. There are many organizational challenges that lead to a lack of documentation, and this can have long term consequences: wasted time and effort in the best of cases and irrevocable loss in the worst of cases. A standardized metadata approach is a way to preserve digital resources across time, to support reusability and to mitigate organizational challenges that result in undocumented models. In this paper, we present a metadata specification inspired from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) with additional elements to capture information specific to Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) simulation models. This work is meant as an initial step towards the establishment of a metadata standard for the preservation of simulation models.