Challenges in Modularization of Discrete Event Simulations

Due to digitalization software systems in general and simulations, in particular, are becoming more and more complicated. This results in increased development cost and development time of simulations. Different approaches have demonstrated that to handle complexity, modularization of monolithic simulations enables the reuse of already developed modules and reduces the overall complexity. The High-Level Architecture, a widely used and researched approach, is the standard for distributed and modularized simulations. However, there are not many alternatives to the existing methods, and the modularization process of current simulations is not well documented and researched. This paper gives an overview of the existing approaches and shows possible research topics in the domain of modular discrete event simulations. Furthermore, we propose the idea of an Architecture Description Language and resulting from it, a template solution for analyzing existing discrete event simulations.