Structural and behavioral equivalence of simulation models

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Abstract
It M sometimes desu-able to know when two different discrete-event simulation models are, in some sense, interchangeable; that is, whether or not the two models always have the same output when run under identical experimental conditions. This notion of behavioral equivalence, while conceptually simple, is difficult to define in a manner that is both useful and testable. It is difficult or impossible to assert that two simulations are behaviorally equivalent for all possible experiments. In this paper, we present an explicit and sensible defimtlon of behavioral equivalence. Unfortunately, like other definitions in the hterature, our definition is not testable in practice. However, using a general graph-theoretic specification of simulation models, which we call Simulation Graphs, we define a testable property related to behavioral equivalence which we refer to as structural equivalence. We then establish that structural equivalence (a testable property) implies behavioral equivalence (a meaningful property). This permits us to assess when it is safe to substitute one model for another. It then becomes possible to develop algorithms for addressing important problems in simulation model development and verification,

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