Efficient Parallel Queuing System Simulation

Queuing systems are an important building block for performance evaluation in various application areas, due to their powerful, yet simple nature. Although it is often possible to perform an analytical evaluation of a queuing model, simulation of queuing systems remains an important technique in the context of performance evaluation. In order to speed up queuing simulation executions, parallel and distributed simulation techniques have been devised. Unfortunately, existing methods are complex in nature, leading to increased development costs. Moreover, most of these approaches have been developed for tightly coupled parallel processing machines. Consequently, they are not suited for a distributed computing environment. This paper investigates an alternative approach based on the technique of time-parallel simulation with fix-up computations. The salient features of this novel approach are its simplicity and its suitability for execution in a distributed environment