Sequential performance of asynchronous conservative PDES algorithms

The widespread use of sequential simulation in large scale parameter studies means that large cost savings can be made by improving the performance of these simulators. Sequential discrete event simulation systems usually employ a central event list to manage future events. This is a priority queue ordered by event timestamps. Many different priority queue algorithms have been developed with the aim of improving simulator performance. Researchers developing asynchronous conservative parallel discrete event simulations have reported exceptional performance for their systems running sequentially in certain cases. This paper compares the performance of simulations using a selection of high performance central event list implementations to that achieved using techniques borrowed from the parallel simulation community. Theoretical and empirical analysis of the algorithms is presented demonstrating the range of performance that can be achieved, and the benefits of employing parallel simulation techniques in a sequential execution environment.