A model-driven method to enable the distributed simulation of BPMN models

The design and development of modern Large-Scale systems and System-of-Systems (SoSs) requires the use of new Modeling and Simulation (M&S) methods, models and techniques so as to manage their ever-increasing complexity. In this context, distributed simulation (DS) can effectively support the analysis and design of these systems by enabling the evaluation and comparison of different design choices. In the DS domain the IEEE 1516-2010-High Level Architecture (HLA) represents the most mature standard. Unfortunately, the development of DS compliant with the HLA standard is a challenging and costly task. To overcome this problem, the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard could represent a viable solution, since it offers a standardized graphical notation based on a flowcharting technique that allows developers to easily specify the behavioral view of such a system in terms of business processes. The paper presents a Model-Driven method that, according to the Model-Driven systems engineering paradigm, allows to generate the HLA-based simulation code from BPMN models by use of a chain of model-to-text transformations.