Criteria for Decomposing Systems Into Components in Modeling and Simulation: Lessons Learned with Military Simulations

A crucial decision within component-based modeling and simulation is the choice of the criterion or criteria to be used in decomposing the system. Many experiences with combat simulation systems indicate, first, that the optimal choice depends on the driving forces behind the decomposition or the goals that should be achieved by using components instead of monolithic systems. Second, the common criteria for decomposition in software design, information hiding, and “object picking”are sometimes inappropriate for model decomposition because they neglect the importance of so-called hidden assumptions of model abstraction and idealization, which are paramount to the modeling of every complex system.