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International Semantic Web Doctoral Symposium Research Topic: Representing Discrete-Event Simulation Process-Interaction Models using the Web Ontology Language - OWL. November 7, 2005 Lee W. Lacy PhD Candidate University of Central Florida. PIMODES Research Overview.
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International Semantic Web Doctoral SymposiumResearch Topic:Representing Discrete-Event Simulation Process-Interaction Models using the Web Ontology Language - OWL November 7, 2005 Lee W. Lacy PhD Candidate University of Central Florida
PIMODES Research Overview • Discrete-event simulation models support operations research and other applications • These models have historically been represented in vendor-specific file formats that have made sharing/interchange difficult • Research is being performed to develop an OWL ontology that will provide a neutral interchange description of these types of models. • The ontology is being scoped to a particular type of discrete event simulation model descriptions – those that adhere to the process-interaction world view • The interchange of simulation models using the ontology will be demonstrated using web-based software
Presentation Outline • Purpose Description • Goal Statement • Methodology • Evaluation • Summary
Purpose Description • Simulation Model Interchange Challenges • Scoping the Problem • Subject Domain • Benefits of Interchange
Why Interchange Models? • Leverage investment in model development through reuse • Higher quality through reuse of validated models • Speed development lifecycle • Reduce development costs • Enable competition of model development environments and compliant execution engines • Potential software manufacturer push-back if not presented correctly • Need to sell the HTML and XML business models • Shift model development emphasis from programming to model quality
Scoping the Proposed Research • Simulation data interchange topic broad • Various types of simulation data • Emphasis shifting from code to data • Simulation models represent one type of data in newer “data-driven” systems • Model is problem-specific while execution engine is problem-independent • Discrete-event simulations represent one type of simulation • Further scoped by “world view”
Benefits of Model Interchange • Better • Reuse of validated models • Faster • Quicker to create new models by leveraging existing models • Cheaper • Lower cost due to reuse instead of creation
Goal Statement • Develop an ontology to support Discrete Event simulation model interchange • Ontology becomes a “de facto” language • New ontology/language harmonizes the most important aspects of legacy languages • Legacy models can then be converted to/from the new “lingua franca” – enabling interchange
Methodology • Use of OWL Ontologies • Research Activities • Research Plan • Feedback Opportunities • Anticipated Results
Simulation Ontology Representations • Proposed by Lacy (2004) and Miller & Fishwick (2004) • Provides advantages over traditional (e.g., XML) approaches • Requires the development of a meta-model • Existing modeling languages have implicit ontologies • New explicit ontologies in effect describes a new modeling language • Mappings required from legacy languages to the new ontology
Web Ontology Language - OWL • OWL became a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Standard in February 2004 • OWL will be used to define a Process-Interaction Modeling Ontology for Discrete-Event Simulations (PIMODES) • Compliant instance files are represented using RDF/XML
A2 – Literature Search (¶2) Activities • Formalize domain semantics (¶2.1) • Survey existing discrete-event process-interaction (¶2.2) • Software packages (¶2.2.2) • Modeling languages (¶2.2.3) • Formalisms/Representation methods (¶2.2.4) • Review related simulation information interchange research (¶2.3) • Describe Semantic Web technology (¶2.4)
Evaluation • Develop sample model in ProcessModel and Arena • Convert legacy model representations to DEPIM • Convert DEPIM representation to legacy formats • Compare converted models to original models
Summary • Simulation data is interchanged in a variety of ways • Interchange is best performed with open standards • OWL can be used to define an ontology for Discrete-Event Process-Interaction models • Use of such an ontology can be demonstrated by converting legacy simulation model formats