Adaptive Discrete Event Simulation Systems to Embrace Changes of Requirements Using Event Control Models

Abstract

During the development or deployment of discrete event simulation systems, many sudden changes in requirements emerge. To embrace the changes rapidly and reduce development costs, attaching reusable, and black-boxed components to existing systems has been regarded as one of the most effective approaches because modifications at the code level are generally costly and risky. However, since this approach requires components that are an exact fit, it may not be easy to avoid the modifications at the source code level actually. Moreover, the required components may not exist. Hence, this paper applies black-box extensibility to simulation systems in order to avoid the modifications. This paper proposes adaptive discrete event simulation systems using event control models for extending and modifying semantics through event-based simulation interface. With the proposed work, the simulation events are modulated, deleted, and generated by the event-oriented control functions in the event control model to embrace the changes of requirements. It can substitute for the modifications at the code level and extend the existing behavioral semantics. As a result, the proposed work provides a new alternative step in the development process with reusable components to avoid modifications at the source code level. The new step will lead to rapid adaptations of existing simulation systems. To support the effectiveness of this approach, this paper will describe applicable examples based on our empirical studies.