DESMO-J: An Object Oriented Discrete Simulation Framework in Java

摘要

Most implementations of a discrete simulation package offer support for either process oriented or event oriented modeling. Although a combination of both paradigms eases modeling of real world systems, this approach has scarcely been implemented. DESMO-J closes the gap between these two modeling paradigms. It is a Java based simulation framework that offers the combination of both event and process oriented modeling under the scope of a single model. The heart of the framework is its architecture and the scheduling mechanism, which relies on Java threads for implementing simulation processes. Special care had to be taken to implement a robust coroutine mechanism for simulation processes whilst still allowing multiple and parallel execution of experiments on a single Java virtual machine. DESMO-J also attempts to widen the aspects of model reuse by offering the composition of complex models based on other (composed) submodels. It has already been used for educational purposes and constitutes a firm basis for a series of further developments towards component based modeling using JavaBeans, web based teaching and the extension towards a GUI for controlling experiments as applets inside a web-browser.