@conference {Gianni20162644, title = {A model-driven and simulation-based method to analyze building evacuation plans}, booktitle = {Proceedings - Winter Simulation Conference}, volume = {2016-February}, year = {2016}, note = {cited By 1}, pages = {2644-2655}, publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}, organization = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}, abstract = {

Modern buildings are often expected to satisfy minimum safety requirements to define upper bounds for safety metrics, such as evacuation time. The building design must therefore consider prediction of these metrics for a set of representative evacuation scenarios. These scenarios can be rather complex, and often can be investigated only using building evacuation simulators. However, these simulators might require considerable development effort, and their use might therefore become less convenient, for time and cost issues. In this respect, this paper introduces a model-driven method to automatically develop building evacuation simulators from informal specifications of building evacuation scenarios, i.e., building plans and behavioral descriptions of evacuees. Specifically, the paper shows how a floor plan develops in the structural characteristics of an Extended Queueing Network (EQN) model and how the behavioral description can be used to parameterize the EQN model. The paper also presents an example application along with preliminary validation issues. {\textcopyright} 2015 IEEE.

}, keywords = {Architectural design, Behavioral descriptions, Building components, Building design, Building evacuation, Buildings, Complex networks, Model-driven method, Modern buildings, Queueing networks, Safety requirements, Simulation-based method, Simulators, Structural characteristics}, isbn = {9781467397438}, issn = {08917736}, doi = {10.1109/WSC.2015.7408372}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84962833056\&partnerID=40\&md5=0f1ea728c9ece7012654f0b378a1486c}, author = {Gianni, D. and Bocciarelli, P. and Andrea D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio and Iazeolla, G.} } @conference {D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio2012234, title = {A method for the prediction of software reliability}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 6th IASTED International Conference on Software Engineering and Applications, SEA 2002}, year = {2012}, note = {cited By 16}, pages = {234-240}, publisher = {Acta Press}, organization = {Acta Press}, abstract = {This paper deals with the reliability assessment of component-based software to predict the software product reliability at the early stage. The proposed approach transforms a specification written in a semi-formal language into a stochastic model to be used for reliability evaluation. The paper assumes an UML-based system specification and introduces a method to map the specification onto a failure model. The method enables software designers with no specific knowledge of reliability theory to predict at design time the reliability of the final product, thus introducing lifecycle reliability prediction into their development best practices. The method is illustrated by use of an application case study that deals with the development of distributed software. A software architecture that allows the method to be easily integrated into UML-based software development environments is also introduced. The architecture is based on the use of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) to represent both the UML system specification and the failure model.}, keywords = {Application programs, Automatic modeling, Component based software, Forecasting, Formal languages, Reliability assessments, Reliability Evaluation, Reliability prediction, Reliability theory, Semi-formal languages, Software development environment, Software engineering, Software reliability, Specifications, XML, XML (extensible markup language)}, isbn = {0889863237; 9780889863231}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84904159409\&partnerID=40\&md5=e3371411e5b757b27cda93c405253da1}, author = {Andrea D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio and Iazeolla, G. and Mirandola, R.} } @conference {D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio2011155, title = {A model transformation approach for the development of HLA-based distributed simulation systems}, booktitle = {SIMULTECH 2011 - Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications}, year = {2011}, note = {cited By 3}, pages = {155-160}, abstract = {The development of HLA-based distributed simulation systems requires a significant expertise and a considerable effort for the inherent complexity of the HLA standard. This paper introduces an automated approach for the development of HLA-based simulation systems of higher quality at largely reduced time, effort and cost. The proposed approach is founded on the use of model transformation techniques and relies on standards introduced by the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The proposed approach takes as input a UML model of the system to be simulated and yields as output both an intermediate UML model and the final code of the HLA-based distributed simulation system.}, keywords = {Computer simulation, Distributed computer systems, Distributed simulation systems, High level architecture, HLA, MDA, Model driven development, Model transformation, Software architecture, Standardization, Unified Modeling Language}, isbn = {9789898425782}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-80052596859\&partnerID=40\&md5=97f5284df768d7865992d397a976c663}, author = {Andrea D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio and Iazeolla, G. and Pieroni, A. and Gianni, D.} } @conference {Gianni201031, title = {A methodology to predict the performance of distributed simulations}, booktitle = {Proceedings - Workshop on Principles of Advanced and Distributed Simulation, PADS}, year = {2010}, note = {cited By 5}, pages = {31-39}, abstract = {Predicting the time-performance of a Distributed Simulation (DS) system may be of interest to evaluate system alternatives during the development cycle, before the system is implemented. In this paper, we introduce a methodology to predict the execution time of a DS system during its design phase. The methodology is based on a model-building approach that, basing on the design documents of the DS system, first produces its performance model and then evaluates it. The model includes components such as middleware to use (e.g., the HLA RTI), the set of DS execution hosts and the set of host interconnection networks. The methodology is applied to determine whether or not producing the distributed simulator of a given system may be advantageous in terms of execution time with respect to a conventional local simulator. An example use of the methodology is presented and validated by a comparison of the time-prediction with the actual execution time of the implemented DS system. {\textcopyright} 2010 IEEE.}, keywords = {Building performance, Computer simulation, Design documents, Design phase, Development cycle, Distributed simulations, Execution time, Forecasting, Middleware, Model buildings, Performance Model, Simulation model}, isbn = {9781424472918}, doi = {10.1109/PADS.2010.5471669}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-77954092922\&partnerID=40\&md5=2d68a6f0b45ad790df832f3da1a2ad43}, author = {Gianni, D. and Iazeolla, G. and Andrea D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio} } @article {D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio2007605, title = {A method for the production of simulation models with application to web interaction paradigms}, journal = {Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory}, volume = {15}, number = {5}, year = {2007}, note = {cited By 2}, pages = {605-620}, abstract = {Modern internet and web applications rely on interactions among remote host computers connected by heterogeneous networks (different LANs, gateways, WANs, MANs, etc.). Simulation modelling such networks is of great importance to the web application designer to predict, at design time, performance metrics such as the end-to-end delay between hosts, which is dramatically increased by the various mechanisms necessary to deal with heterogeneity (protocol conversion, packet fragmentation and re-assembly, flow control, etc.). On the other hand, producing a simulation model of web interactions is a non-trivial task because of the great importance of the software aspects. It is thus necessary to provide general model production guidelines which can be then tailored and applied to specific simulation languages or packages. This paper gives such general production guidelines with an example application to the production of simulation models for web interaction paradigms of client-server and mobile agent types. An example use of the models is also introduced to predict the most convenient paradigm and the best choice of the host capacities for each given network configuration. {\textcopyright} 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, keywords = {Client-server, Computer simulation, Interaction paradigms, Internet, Mathematical models, Mobile agents, Network protocols, Object oriented programming, Object-oriented simulation, Servers, Simulation model production, Web applications}, issn = {1569190X}, doi = {10.1016/j.simpat.2004.06.009}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-34147118556\&partnerID=40\&md5=0f9139beebc9c61d01f2520a10350922}, author = {Andrea D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio and Iazeolla, G. and Pasini, L.} } @article {D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio2005127, title = {Metadata-driven design of integrated environments for software performance validation}, journal = {Journal of Systems and Software}, volume = {76}, number = {2}, year = {2005}, note = {cited By 5}, pages = {127-146}, abstract = {Lifecycle validation of the performance of software products (i.e., the prediction of the product ability to satisfy the user performance requirements) encompasses the production of performance models from CASE documents. The model production activity is a critical, time-consuming and error-prone activity so that lifecycle validation is still not widely accepted and applied. The reason is twofold: the lack of methods for the automatic derivation of software performance models from CASE documents and the lack of environments that implement and integrate such methods. A number of methods for the automatic derivation of software performance models from CASE documents has been already proposed in literature, without however solving the automation problem. This paper instead faces up to such problem, by introducing an integrated and standards-based environment for the automatic derivation and evaluation of queueing-based performance models. The environment is based on the use of standards for metadata exchange (MOF, XMI), to ease the integration of the most common UML-based CASE tools, thus enabling software designers to smoothly introduce performance validation activities into their best development practices. {\textcopyright} 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.}, keywords = {Codes (standards), Computer aided software engineering, Computer simulation, Lifecycle validation, Metadata, Metamodeling, Performance, Quality control, Software environments, Software performance, XML}, issn = {01641212}, doi = {10.1016/j.jss.2004.04.014}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-11144271040\&partnerID=40\&md5=36f844fc57fc3cf9ba5a51344b5472d2}, author = {Andrea D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio and Iazeolla, G.} } @article {D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio2004584, title = {Model-driven maintenance of QoS characteristics in heterogeneous networks}, journal = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)}, volume = {3280}, year = {2004}, note = {cited By 0}, pages = {584-593}, publisher = {Springer Verlag}, abstract = {System QoS maintenance is the activity intended to maintain the system QoS at acceptable levels. The activity consists of continuously measuring the system QoS characteristics and adjusting the system parameters that affect them. This paper introduces a model-driven approach to the maintenance of QoS characteristics in heterogeneous networks that support geographically distributed processing services. The model is used as an on-line tool that enables network managers to rapidly adjust the network parameters to maintain the network QoS characteristics at required levels. The on-line use of the model requires short model evaluation times, which are obtained by use of a multi-level hierarchical hybrid technique. The application to the maintenance of timerelated and capacity-related network QoS characteristics is illustrated. {\textcopyright} Springer-Verlag 2004.}, keywords = {Distributed processing, Heterogeneous networks, Hybrid techniques, Maintenance, Model driven approach, Model evaluation, Model-driven, Network managers, Network parameters, On-line tools}, issn = {03029743}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-35048850389\&partnerID=40\&md5=21de7002295472f48770051c819654c3}, author = {Andrea D{\textquoteright}Ambrogio and De Person{\'e}, V.N. and Iazeolla, G.} }