Contrasting Distributed Simulation With Parallel Replication: A Case Study Of A Queuing Simulation On A Network Of Transputers

Abstract

As discrete event simulation programs become larger and more complex, the amount of computing power required for their execution is rapidly increasing. One way to achieve this power is by a employing a multiple processor network to run the simulation programs. Two approaches to the problem of assigning tasks to processors are described--environment partitioning distributed simulation, in which the tasks required to perform a simulation are assigned to processors in the network; and parallel replication, in which copies of the simulation program are assigned to processors and the results of their execution aggregated. A simulation of an M/M/c queuing system has been implemented on networks of two and three transputers, using each approach. Heidelberger's statistical efficiency and the stabilization time of the system are used as metrics. The parallel replications tended to stabilize faster, but the statistical efficiencies were not significantly different.