Design issues in parallel simulation languages

The authors address several key issues in designing languages for parallel discrete-event simulation and survey the state-of-the-art techniques aimed at solving these problems. Attention is given to issues that are specific to parallel simulation, e.g., the parallel synchronization schemes, or issues that have not previously been a problem for sequential simulation, e.g., termination. Various specialized PSLs (parallel simulation languages) may also have quite different design issues. The problem of achieving transparency is addressed. In particular it is observed that a major difficulty in achieving the design criteria is the overhead introduced by the methods for solving the problems considered. In some cases making the design criteria less constrained appears to be unavoidable. The authors also propose several useful high-level language constructs to facilitate modeling in order to have the simulation system deal with the low-level details transparently. They show that extending the capability of an existing programming language is the simplest available technique for designing a PSL.<>