A Formal Description Specification for Multi-Resolution Modeling Based on DEVS Formalism and its Applications

Multi-Resolution Modeling (MRM) is a relatively new research area. With the development of distributed interactive simulation, especially as the emergence of HLA (High Level Architecture), multi-resolution modeling becomes one of the key technologies for advanced modeling and simulation. But there is little research in the area of the theory of multi-resolution modeling, especially the formal description of MRM. In this paper, a new concept for the description of multi-resolution modeling, named Multi-resolution model Family (MF) is presented. A multi-resolution model family is defined as the set of different resolution models of the same entity. The description of MF includes two parts: models of different resolution and their relations. Based on this new concept and DEVS (Discrete Event Specification) formalism, a new multi-resolution model system specification, named MRMS (Multi-Resolution Model system Specification) is proposed. Some important properties of MRMS, especially the closure of MRMS under coupling operation are given and proved. MRMS provides a foundation and a powerful description tool for the research of MRM. An example to illustrate how to describe a multi-resolution model using our specification is given. Using this description, the theory and implementation of MRM can be further studied.