Discrete-event simulation of continuous-time systems: evolution and state of the art of quantized state system methods

Abstract

In this work, we attempt to bring together the origins, main results, and recent advances on discrete-event simulation of continuous-time systems. Starting from the early approaches that aimed to represent continuous-time dynamics within the discrete-event system specification (DEVS) formalism framework, the work shows how these ideas gave place to the formalization of the quantized state system (QSS) family of numerical integration algorithms. Then, we describe the QSS algorithms, their properties, their extensions, and the main practical software tools implementing them. We also present a selection of simulation examples illustrating the main features and advantages through comparisons with state-of-the-art continuous-time simulation solvers.