An improved computational algorithm for round-robin service

We present an efficient algorithm for effecting round-robin service in discrete-event simulation systems. The approach generalizes and improves upon a previous approach in which a single arrival and a single departure event is considered and handled at a time; further, the previous approach is already an improvement over naive round-robin scheduling currently in use in simulation libraries. The prior proposal offered a run-time complexity of O(n²), because the processing of each event required an entire traversal of the job pool. We propose a generalized algorithm which includes the previous case and also accommodates burst arrivals and batch departures, further reducing run-time complexity to O(n log n). This is achieved through a detailed but efficient computation of multiple departure times, while simultaneously obviating the need for a job pool update with each departure. Empirical results are presented to compare performance with previously proposed algorithms.