An Aspect-Oriented Approach for the Development of Complex Simulation Software

We propose an aspect-oriented approach for the development of simulation software aiming at increasing the flexibility, the rapidity of development, and maintainability of simulation software. The horizontal decomposition method is used to separate the core functionality of the simulation application from simulation-specific cross-cutting concerns like distribution, tool integration, persistence, and fault tolerance. We analyze an existing dispersion simulation application to demonstrate the applicability of our approach and provide a proof of concept in form of the aspect-oriented implementation of two cross-cutting concerns, namely distribution and tool integration.