Studying the impact of web-services implementation of distributed simulation of DEVS and Cell-DEVS models

Abstract

DEVS is a Modeling and Simulation formalism that has been used to study the dynamics of discrete event systems. Cell-DEVS is a DEVS-based formalism that defines the cell space as a group of DEVS models connected together. This work presents the design and implementation of a distributed simulation engine based on CD++; a modeling and simulation toolkit capable of executing DEVS and Cell-DEVS models. The proposed simulation engine follows the conservative approach for synchronization among the nodes, and takes advantage of web service technologies in order to execute complex models using the resources available in a grid environment. In addition, it allows for the integration with other systems using standard web service tools. The performance of the engine depends on the network connectivity among the nodes; which can be commodity Internet connections, or dedicated point-to-point links created using User Controlled Light Path (UCLP). UCLP is a web service-based network management tool used by grid applications to allocate bandwidth on demand.