Efficient High-Level modeling in the networking domain

Starting Electronic System Level (ESL) design flows with executable High-Level Models (HLMs) has the potential to sustainability improve productivity. However, writing good HLMs for complex systems is still a challenging task. In the context of network controller design, modeling complexity has two major sources: (1) the functionality to handle a single connection, and (2) the number of connections to be handled in parallel. In this paper, we will propose an efficient actor-oriented modeling approach for complex systems by (1) integrating hierarchical FSMs into dynamic dataflow models, and (2) providing new channel types to allow concurrent processing of multiple connections. We will show the applicability of our proposed modeling approach to real-world system designs by presenting results from modeling and simulating a network controller for the Parallel Sysplex architecture used in IBM System z mainframes.