Performance modeling study of a client/server system architecture

This paper presents a model developed during the course of an investigation conducted at The AMS Center for Advanced Technologies, in which IBM´s Research Queuing Modeling Environment (RESQME) was used to perform discrete-event simulation of a large client/server (C/S) system for a major corporation in the health-care products field. RESQME provides a wide range of tools for applying discrete-event simulation to application architecture, system sizing, and the configuration of computer systems. By applying simulation modeling early in the system design process, system developers can avoid the performance bottlenecks and potentially costly mistakes in system design. The RESQME analysis identified an initially unsuspected system bottleneck and permitted stress-testing of the proposed system without physical implementation of hardware and software.