5. Implications for Temporary Disaggregation in
Simulations, Including Distributed Interactive Simulation
One of the motivations for this report was to illuminate a problem
arising in distributed simulation, the problem of connecting
models of different resolution meaningfully (Davis, 1995).
Crossing levels of resolution is notoriously difficult (see Davis
and Hillestad, 1992, 1993), but it is even more difficult to do so
frequently in the course of a simulation--sometimes disaggregating
and then reaggregating--as when, for example, an aggregate object
must do battle with an item-level object, after which the war
proceeds.
Is it reasonable to do such disaggregation and reaggregation?
Based on the foregoing, a key criterion would appear to be whether
the real-world aggregate-level object would "reequilibrate" after
one of its components had been in battle. If not, there could be
important correlations from one battle to the next and the
procedure of disaggregating, aggregating, and disaggregating would
be improper. But if the reequilibration is realistic, then the
procedure may be reasonable--although other kinds of errors can be
introduced if, for example, the disaggregation procedure always
assumes the same standard formation and tactics.
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