Environment for automatic system performance evaluation

A wide range of modeling and simulation packages have been applied to evaluate manufacturing systems, computer systems, and telecommunication networks. The objective of using simulation is to assess system designs prior to their implementation. In this paper, a modeling and simulation environment supported by a hierarchical, model-based management methodology is presented. This environment allows users to efficiently construct system models and procedures for performance evaluation without requiring prior knowledge of the simulation description language. The environment, called Performance index-Oriented modeling and Simulation Environment (POSE), provides hierarchical function manipulation based on the partition of the system's architecture. A window-based graphical front-end has been developed to offer a simple and straightforward user interface. Through POSE, the model and simulation development time has been significant reduced. An example of a manufacturing system is presented to illustrate POSE.