Towards the Verification and Validation of DEVS Models
Yvan Labiche, Gabriel Wainer · 2005
The creation of a simulation model, like the creation of any software product, is guided by principles and procedures that have been reasonably well established within the software engineering community. In the context of a simulation, we need to be able to characterize the dynamic behavior of the system, and such characterization should be expressed in a format that is as clear and unambiguous as possible. Wherever feasible, formal approaches should be used. One of these formal techniques, the DEVS formalism, has gained popularity in recent years. Although some efforts have been dedicated to the Validation and Verification (V&V) of DEVS models, this is an open research area with interesting opportunities for application of advanced software engineering techniques. Indeed, it appears that thanks to the characteristics of DEVS models and the fact that DEVS models can be executed (e.g., the CD++ toolkit allows the use of DEVS and Cell-DEVS formalisms) well-known software testing techniques are worth investigating for the V&V of DEVS models. In this article, we show these similarities and discuss open research paths in the field of DEVS modeling Verification and Validation by means of testing.