A taxonomy for classifying terminologies that describe simulations with multiple models

Many terms exist within Modeling and Simulation that refer to models consisting of more than one modeling paradigm, more than one model, or more than one formalism. To provide some clarification this paper identifies nine terms from the Modeling and Simulation literature and compares them against a taxonomy of model characteristics including time representation, basis of value, behavior, expression, resolution, and execution in order to classify the various terminologies and allow for a discussion from a generalized perspective. Results show that all nine modeling terminologies share the characteristic of resolution, none of the terminologies deal with all six characteristics, and that many of the terminologies deal with only three or less of the characteristics. Finally, this paper explores challenges with using multiple models that contain competing characteristics that are not covered in the literature.