Hierarchical modeling and abstraction of discrete event systems using finite state machines with parameters

A trace-based model abstraction mechanism that aggregates parameters and event sequences to a coarser, granularity is presented for discrete event systems modeled as finite state machines with parameters. Using both state transitions and parameter values for representing system behaviors and resources, the finite state machine with parameters (FSMwP) approach has resulted in efficient and compact representations for discrete event systems (in particular, those that cannot be efficiently modeled by the traditional automata-based approach). We propose a hierarchical modeling framework for FSMwPs based on an abstraction mechanism that enables automatic synthesis of models of all the entities in the hierarchy. The characteristics and advantages/disadvantages of the proposed abstraction mechanism and hierarchical framework are also discussed.