A common occurrence in disciplines that are at the center of widespread, multifaceted research by individuals with varied interests and backgrounds, is the slow development of a standard terminological system. Such has been the case in discrete event simulation. The definitions presented here conform to the premise advanced by Nance and have, over the past fifteen years, begun to gain general recognition within the discrete event simulation community. In a continuous simulation, the variables within the simulation are continuous functions, e.g. a system of differential equations. A combined simulation refers generally to a simulation that has both discrete event and continuous components.
Hybrid simulation refers to the use of an analytical submodel within a discrete event model.
Monte Carlo modeling components. The focus of this thesis is limited to discrete event simulation. As noted, a simulation involves modeling a system. Only through the objective can meaning be assigned to any given simulation program. Since by definition a model is an abstraction, details exist in the system that do not have representation in the model.