Towards a Universal Representation of DEVS: A Metamodel-Based Definition of DEVS Formal Specification

Abstract

The Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) is one of the key formalisms to define Discrete Event Simulation (DES) models and underlying concepts. In this paper, we propose a conceptualization of DEVS designed as a metamodel that supports the formalization task. Such a conceptualization is part of a multi-level layered structure that defines a universal representation of DEVS as a combination of both theory and practice points of view. For the metamodel specification, we employ UML. With the existing modeling technology, our metamodel can be implemented to provide a framework that supports: (a) consistency validation between discrete event system descriptions and formal models using a DES metamodel, (b) interoperability between formalization and most used implementations using a platform-independent metamodel, and (c) consistency verification between formal models and their implementation. All these benefits are derived from the capability of defining model-to-model transformations over the modeling levels proposed in our conceptualization.