Fact Sheet: System Structure and Parameterization (SSP)

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General

Short Description/ Transmitted Information - Assembly of simulation components and their paranmerters into simulation ready (sub-)systems
- SSP 1.0 was released in March 2019, specification is accessable via ssp-standard.org*
Application Scope - Specify simulation ready (sub-)systems consisting of connected simulation models (e.g. FMUs), parameters and resources
- Provide a container for systems and meta-data during the whole simulation life-cycle
Maturity Industrialization (potentially standardization)
Goals - Standardized description format for simulation systems
- Enhancement of FMU interoperability
- Parameter exchange, standardizes communication architecture between components
Penetration Individual expert teams
Visibility Approx. 10%
Promoting Bodies Modelica Association, prostep ivip project group SmartSE
Type Standard of the Modelica Association
IT Standard Classification - Interoperability Standard
- Integration Standard
Data Format - Text Format (ASCII/XML)
- Compressed (Container-Data)
Relations to other standards FMI, XML, XML Schema, ZIP
Overlap with other standards - Packaging: Potentially DDP
- Contents: To be checked with StepXML
- Architecture/Requirements View: SysML
- DEXPI (https://dexpi.org/**), MOSSEC (http://www.mossec.org/***)

AVAILABLE ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION

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Industry Users


Positioning of SSP in V-Model


Details

Included sub data formats and their respective meanings

  • SSP stands for System Structure and Parametrization and provides a set of file formats to provide for the exchange of simulation systems, including their structure, components and parameterization
  • SSP files are ZIP archives and provide packaging for system descriptions and referenced resources
  • SSD files are XML files providing the structure of the simulation system, including hierarchical system structure, components (FMUs, external Systems, …), their interconnection and parameters being applied
  • SSV files are XML files providing for the exchange of parameter values
  • SSM files are XML files providing for the exchange of parameter mappings (names, value transformations)
  • SSB files are XML files providing for the exchange of signal dictionaries for reusable signal definitions

Additional information

  • The SSP standard is being developed by the Modelica Association Project SSP
  • SSP 1.0 has been publically released at 2019-03-05
  • 4-5 (prototypical) implementations available

Relevance and Benefit for MBSE

  • The relevance of SSP for SE/MBSE is closely related to the relevance of the exchange of integrated simulation models and co-simulations, which both have a very high relevance
  • The benefits of using SSP for the exchange of integrated simulation models (FMU and non FMU) are
    • re-use of integration effort of sub-systems between simulation platforms and partners
    • exchangeable specification of component interfaces and standardized communication channels (e.g. via signal dictionaries)
    • improved traceability of simulation artefacts by packaging of matching systems, components and parameters in one transportable package
    • safeguarding coherent simulation structure and setup on all partners sites
    • availability of an extensible container format for packaging of other related meta-data (e.g. SMMD) and resources
    • ability to integrate new component types (e.g. DCP (https://dcp-standard.org/), vECUs, …) in a uniform fashion in the future

Risks and Impediments

  • The benefit with respect to automated import/export processes is coupled with the implementation of import/export processors that cannot be enforced but only be fostered by prostep ivip association
  • Adoption in companies depends on increased efforts to popularize SSP, similarly to efforts needed for FMI 1.0
  • Current major impediment to wider implementation is the efforts of better community outreach, which currently rests on individual SSP members or SmartSE members for the most part