TOWARD AN ASPECT-ORIENTED SIMULATION

Discrete event simulation (DES) projects implement several crosscutting concerns, such as event scheduling, event handling, and keeping track of a simulationa€ s state which tend to produce a tangling and scattering simulation code. This increases the complexity and reduces the maintainability which requires specific separation of concerns (SOC). The aspect oriented programming (AOP) paradigm puts a greater focus on crosscutting concerns than other language paradigms. It provides language mechanisms such as the prominent AspectJ, that explicitly capture crosscutting concerns in a modular way and thus achieving the benefits that results from improved modularity; code that is easier to design, implement, maintain, reuse and evolve. In this paper, we present the most benefits of using the aspect oriented programming paradigm in the simulation modeling field. Besides that, we identify the main crosscutting concerns for a discrete event simulator.