Möbius™

Category Cross-Omics>Agent-Based Modeling/Simulation/Tools

Abstract Möbius is a software tool for modeling the behavior of complex systems.

Although it was originally developed for studying the reliability, availability, and performance of computer and network systems, its use has expanded rapidly.

It is now used for a broad range of discrete-event systems, from biochemical reactions within genes to the effects of malicious attackers on secure computer systems, in addition to its original applications.

That broad range of use is possible because of the flexibility and advancement found in Möbius, which come from its support of multiple high-level modeling formalisms and multiple solution techniques.

This flexibility allows engineers and scientists to represent their systems in modeling languages appropriate to their problem domains, and then accurately and efficiently solve the systems using the solution techniques best suited to the systems’ size and complexity.

Time- and space-efficient discrete-event simulation and numerical solution, based on compact Model-Driven Development (MDD)-based Markov processes, are both supported.

Möbius Application Areas --

Möbius supports the validation of systems in multiple application domains, including:

Information Technology Systems and Networks; Wired and Wireless Telecommunication Software and Hardware Systems;

Aerospace and Aeronautical Systems; Commercial and Government Secure Information Systems and Networks; and ‘Biological Systems’, with respect to multiple system properties, including reliability, availability, security, and performance.

The Möbius Approach --

The Möbius tool was built based on the belief that No one modeling formalism can be the best way to build all models of systems from across the diverse spectrum of application domains.

In addition to the fact that many domain-specific modeling languages are needed, one also needs many techniques (for example, simulation, state space exploration, and analytical solution) for analyzing models to study important behaviors of the systems being modeled.

Möbius addresses those issues by defining a ‘broad framework’ in which new modeling formalisms and model solution methods can be easily integrated, and populating that framework with multiple, synergistically combined modeling formalisms and model solution methods.

Many advanced modeling formalisms and innovative and advanced solution techniques have been integrated into the Möbius framework.

Möbius Architecture --

The Möbius framework provides a very general way to specify a model in a particular formalism.

The manufacturer defines formalism as a language for expressing a model within the Möbius framework, frequently using only a subset of the options available within the framework.

The manufacturer defines models within the Möbius framework using a few basic concepts.

A model is a collection of state variables, actions, and reward variables expressed in some formalism.

Briefly, state variables hold the state information of the model. Actions change the state of the model over time. Reward variables are ways of measuring something of interest about the model.

Although the basic elements of a model are very general and advanced, formalisms need Not make use of all the generality. In fact, it may be useful to restrict the generality in order to exploit some property for efficiency.

The purpose of some formalism is to expose these properties easily, and to take advantage of them for an efficient solution. Möbius was designed with this in mind.

In order to improve the reusability of models already built, it is useful to classify models as follows.

The most basic category is that of “atomic models”.

An atomic model is a self-contained (but Not necessarily complete) model that is expressed in a single formalism.

Several models may be structurally joined together to form a single larger model, which is called a composed model.

A composed model is a model (in itself), and may also be a component of a larger composed model.

A model that is more loosely connected by the sharing of solutions is called a connected model.

Möbius Features/Capabilities --

1) Multiple modeling languages, based on either graphical or textual representations:

Supported model types include stochastic extensions to Petri nets, Markov chains and extensions, and stochastic process algebras.

Models are constructed with the right level of detail, and customized to the specific behavior of the system of interest.

2) Hierarchical modeling paradigm - Build models from the ground up.

First specify the behavior of individual components, and then combine the components to create a model of the complete system.

It is easy to combine components in multiple ways to examine alternative system designs.

3) Customized measures of system properties - Construct detailed expressions that measure the exact information desired about the system (e.g., reliability, availability, performance, and security).

Measurements can be conducted at specific time points, over periods of time, or when the system reaches steady state.

4) Study the behavior of the system under a variety of operating conditions - Functionality of the system can be defined as model input parameters, and then the behavior of the system can be automatically studied across wide ranges of input parameter values to determine safe operating ranges, to determine important system constraints, and to study system behaviors that could be difficult to measure experimentally with prototypes.

5) Distributed discrete-event simulation - Evaluates the custom measures using efficient simulation algorithms to repeatedly execute the system, either on a local machine or in a distributed fashion across a cluster of machines, and gathers statistical results of the measures.

6) Numerical solution techniques - Exact solutions can be calculated for many classes of models, and advances in state-space computation and generation techniques make it possible to solve models with tens of millions of states.

Previously, such models could only be solved by simulation.

Möbius Documentation --

The manufacturers of Möbius provide an extensive User Manual in the PDF format.

System Requirements

Möbius runs on Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS 10.5/10.6, and Ubuntu Linux 8.10/9.04/9.10.

Manufacturer

Manufacturer Web Site Möbius

Price Contact manufacturer.

G6G Abstract Number 20614

G6G Manufacturer Number 104215