Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation for a Dynamic Co-Simulation of Internet-of-Things-Components

The heterogeneity and dynamics of IoT systems pose new challenges for their simulation, especially for hardware-in-the-loop simulations, which can be met by modular co-simulation. Therefore, several existing co-simulation approaches are presented and their suitability for hardware-in-the-loop co-simulations is evaluated. A new concept for dynamic hardware-in-the-loop co-simulation of IoT systems with a multi-agent system is presented, where each IoT component is simulated in its own simulation tool. Each individual simulation is represented by an agent and is therefore able to dynamically enter a co-simulation at run-time, which enables a "plug-and-simulate" behavior. The presented concept is evaluated by a prototypical implementation.