A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TO CLASSIFY THE EXTENSIONS OF DEVS FORMALISM AS VARIANTS AND SUBCLASSES

Abstract

The Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) is a general modeling formalism with sound semantics founded on a system theoretic basis. It can be used as a base for the development of specialized modeling formalisms. Usually, the extensions of DEVS expand the classes of systems models that can be represented in DEVS. However, with a growing number in new variants of DEVS and an increasing number of problems to be solved using discrete simulation techniques, it is necessary to define the relations among different approaches. This paper presents a conceptual modeling perspective applied to DEVS extensions that structure a framework over the traditional modeling and simulation approach. The framework provides a multilevel structure to analyze the features required for each extension type. Two main types of extensions are identified: variants and subclasses. In order to illustrate the proposed guidelines, the Routed DEVS formalism is presented as example of the subclass type.