Comparing simulation models in a concurrent environment: the case of innovation diffusion

This paper proposes a generic software architecture for the concurrent execution of social simulation models. Concurrent execution of simulation models has considerable advantages regarding other ways of comparing models, such as run-time comparison, performance evaluation, and the possibility of interaction between complementary models. A tool has been implemented and experiments have been carried out comparing two different models, based on cellular automata and social network technologies, both applied to the domain of innovation diffusion.