Process-oriented model integration

The authors outline a process-oriented approach to model integration based on familiar notions from discrete-event simulation and communicating sequential processes. They introduce features of a model integration command language (MICL) that incorporates message-passing, demons, suspend/resume mechanisms, and structured programming constructs to represent a model integration schema, or procedure. They present several examples of model integration from various domains or demonstrate how the MICL functions. The primary advantage of the MICL is that it allows model components to be used as building blocks for more elaborate composite models without necessitating modifications to the components themselves. Incorporating the MICL as part of a model-management system's model manipulation language provides a mechanism for multiparadigmatic integration as well as for assimilating behaviorally complex components, such as those found in discrete event simulation, into the model management framework.<>