Tool Support for Co-Simulation-Based Analysis

The development of collaborative embedded systems (CESs) requires the validation of their runtime behavior during design time. In this context, simulation-based analysis methods play a key role in the development of such systems. Simulations of CESs tend to become complex. One cause is that CESs work in collaborative system groups (CSGs) within a dynamic context., which is why CESs must be simulated as participants of a CSG. Another cause stems from the fact that CES simulations cover various cyber-physical domains. The models incorporated are often managed by different tools that are specialized for specific simulation disciplines and must be jointly executed in a cosimulation. Besides the methodological aspects, the interoperability of models and tools within such a co-simulation is a major challenge. This chapter focusses on the tool integration aspect of enabling co-simulations. It motivates the need for co-simulation for CES development and describes a general tool architecture. The chapter presents the advantages and limitations of adopting existing standards such as FMI and DCP, as well as best practices for integrating simulation tools and models for CESs and CSGs.