Efficient distributed simulation of hierarchical DEVS models: transforming model structure into a non-hierarchical one

The Discrete Event Systems Specification (DEVS) formulism specifies a discrete event system in a hierarchical, modular form. This paper presents a distributed simulation methodology for models specified by the DEVS formalism. The methodology transforms a hierarchical DEVS model into a nonhierarchical one. This transformation can eliminate the overheads incurred during conventional hierarchical simulation, and make ease the synchronization of distributed simulation, thereby increasing the stability of the simulation engine. To show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, we realize the simulation scheme in Visual C++, and conduct a benchmark simulation for a large-scale logistics system. The performance result shows that the proposed methodology works correctly and performs better than the previous approaches.