Simulation software is being increasingly used in various domains for system analysis and/or behavior prediction. Traditionally, researchers and field experts need to have access to the computers that host the simulation software to do simulation experiments. With recent advances in cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS), a new paradigm is emerging where simulation software is used as services that are composed with others and dynamically influence each other for service-oriented simulation experiment on the Internet. The new service-oriented paradigm brings new research challenges in composing multiple simulation services in a meaningful and correct way for simulation experiments. To systematically support simulation software as a service (SimSaaS) and service-oriented simulation experiment, we propose a layered framework that includes five layers: an infrastructure layer, a simulation execution engine layer, a simulation service layer, a simulation experiment layer and finally a graphical user interface layer. Within this layered framework, we provide a specification for both simulation experiment and the involved individual simulation services. Such a formal specification is useful in order to support systematic compositions of simulation services as well as automatic deployment of composed services for carrying out simulation experiments. Built on this specification, we identify the issue of mismatch of time granularity and event granularity in composing simulation services at the pragmatic level, and develop four types of granularity handling agents to be associated with the couplings between services. The ultimate goal is to achieve standard and automated approaches for simulation service composition in the emerging service-oriented computing environment. Finally, to achieve more efficient service-oriented simulation, we develop a profile-based partitioning method that exploits a system’s dynamic behavior and uses it as a profile to guide the spatial partitioning for more efficient parallel simulation. We develop the work in this dissertation within the application context of wildfire spread simulation, and demonstrate the effectiveness of our work based on this application.

Simulation software is being increasingly used in various domains for system analysis and/or behavior prediction. Traditionally, researchers and field experts need to have access to the computers that host the simulation software to do simulation experiments. With recent advances in cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS), a new paradigm is emerging where simulation software is used as services that are composed with others and dynamically influence each other for service-oriented simulation experiment on the Internet. The new service-oriented paradigm brings new research challenges in composing multiple simulation services in a meaningful and correct way for simulation experiments. To systematically support simulation software as a service (SimSaaS) and service-oriented simulation experiment, we propose a layered framework that includes five layers: an infrastructure layer, a simulation execution engine layer, a simulation service layer, a simulation experiment layer and finally a graphical user interface layer. Within this layered framework, we provide a specification for both simulation experiment and the involved individual simulation services. Such a formal specification is useful in order to support systematic compositions of simulation services as well as automatic deployment of composed services for carrying out simulation experiments. Built on this specification, we identify the issue of mismatch of time granularity and event granularity in composing simulation services at the pragmatic level, and develop four types of granularity handling agents to be associated with the couplings between services. The ultimate goal is to achieve standard and automated approaches for simulation service composition in the emerging service-oriented computing environment. Finally, to achieve more efficient service-oriented simulation, we develop a profile-based partitioning method that exploits a system’s dynamic behavior and uses it as a profile to guide the spatial partitioning for more efficient parallel simulation. We develop the work in this dissertation within the application context of wildfire spread simulation, and demonstrate the effectiveness of our work based on this application.

El objetivo de la tesis es definir una metodología de desarrollo de aplicaciones de tiempo real basadas en componentes, orientada a aplicaciones cuyos requisitos temporales se especifican utilizando un modelo reactivo de comportamiento temporal. La metodología se construye en base a extensiones que incorporan a las especificaciones, modelos de referencia y procesos estándares propios de la ingeniería de componentes convencionales, esto es, sin requisitos temporales, los datos y los procesos necesarios para la especificación, diseño y análisis de los aspectos relativos al comportamiento temporal. La metodología se sustenta en cuatro contribuciones principales:- Se propone la metodología de modelado modular del comportamiento temporal Mod-MAST, que permite construir el modelo de una aplicación basada en componentes por composición de los modelos de los componentes que la forman. - Se propone la extensión RT-D&C de la especificación Deployment and Configuration of Component-based Distributed Applications de OMG, que permite incluir metadatos relativos a comportamiento temporal en los descriptores de componentes, plataformas de ejecución y aplicaciones. - Se especifica la tecnología de componentes RT-CCM como una extensión de la especificación estándar Lightweight CCM de OMG, que añade los mecanismos necesarios para desarrollar aplicaciones con comportamiento temporal predecible.- Se propone la tecnología de componentes Ada-CCM como implementación concreta de RT-CCM basada en el lenguaje de programación Ada 2005.Todos estos elementos se integran en un proceso completo de diseño de tiempo real de aplicaciones basadas en componentes. / The objective of this work is to define a methodology for the development of real-time component-based applications, focused on applications whose timing requirements are specified according to a reactive model of the timing behaviour. The methodology is built through a set of extensions that incorporate to the standard specifications, reference models and processes typical from the conventional components engineering, i.e. components without timing requirements, the data structures and the processes required for the specification, design and analysis of the aspects related to timing behaviour. The methodology relies on four main contributions:- The Mod-MAST modular modelling methodology, which allows building the real-time model of a component-based application by composing the models of the components that form it.- The RT-D&C extension of the Deployment and Configuration of Component-based Distributed Applications Specification of the OMG, which allows including metadata related to timing behaviour in the descriptors of components, execution platforms and applications.- The RT-CCM components technology, which is an extension of the standard Lightweight CCM Specification of the OMG that incorporates mechanisms to develop applications with predictable timing behaviour.- The Ada-CCM components technology has been developed. It is an implementation of the RT-CCM technology based on the Ada 2005 programming language.All these elements have been integrated in a complete real-time design process for component-based applications.