A cost effective modeling technique for polling systems

The run time of a polling system simulation model may be significantly reduced by replacing the polling function with a formula to predict the polling wait time. This eliminates the simulation of polling when there is no information to be transferred. Two models of a multi-station half duplex SDLC network are compared: one which simulates all polling and one which uses the formula. Results indicate that, for systems which operate at less than saturation traffic levels, significant reductions in model run times may be achieved with minimal error in queue statistics.