A Web Based Modeling and Simulation Environment to Support the DEVS Simulation Lifecycle

Abstract

The Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) is a hierarchical and modular simulation formalism that can represent an unlimited range of real-world systems. Its flexibility comes at a cost: increased complexity when developing simulation models, less model reusability, and lowered adoption rates. In addition, the DEVS software environment is generally fragmented and siloed. Tools have been developed to support model debugging or simulation trace visualization but, they are often closely coupled to simulators and consequently their usefulness is limited. We present a web-based modeling and simulation environment that is meant to alleviate some of the pressure points faced by DEVS users across the simulation lifecycle. The environment provides a library of reusable models meant to favor sharing models and collaboration, a workflow-based approach for modeling large scale systems, front-end resources in the form of an API to develop case-specific simulation-based applications and a set of web resources to facilitate the simulation lifecycle management.