Enhancing the performance of HLA-based simulation systems via software diversity and active replication

In this paper we explore active replication based on software diversity for improving the responsiveness of simulation systems. Our proposal is framed by the High-Level-Architecture (HLA), namely the emerging standard for interoperability of simulation packages, and results in the design and implementation of an Active Replication Management Layer (ARML), which supports the execution of multiple software diversity-based replicas of a same simulator in a totally transparent manner. Beyond presenting the replication framework and the design/implementation of ARML, we also report the results of an experimental evaluation on a case study, quantifying the benefits from our proposal in terms of execution speed. © 2006 IEEE

The Distributed Independent-Platform Event-Driven Simulation Engine Library (DIESEL)

The Distributed, Independent-Platform, Event-Driven Simulation Engine Library (DIESEL) is a simulation executive, capable of supporting both sequential and distributed discrete-event simulations. A system level specification is provided along with the expected behavior of each component within DIESEL. This behavioral specification of each component, along with the interconnection and interaction between the different components, provides a complete description of the DIESEL behavioral model. The model provides a considerable amount of freedom for an application developer to partition the simulation model, when building sequential and distributed applications with respect to balancing the number of events generated across different components. It also allows a developer to modify underlying algorithms in the simulation executive, while causing no changes to the overall system behavior so long as the algorithms meet the behavioral specifications. The behavioral model is object-oriented and developed using a hierarchical approach. The model is not targeted towards any programming language or hardware platform for implementation. The behavioral specification provides no specifics about how the model should be implemented. A complete and stable implementation of the behavioral model is provided as a proof-of-concept, and can be used to develop commercial applications. New and independent implementations of the complete model can be developed to support specific commercial and research efforts. Specific components of the model can also be implemented by students in an educational environment, using strategies different from the ones used within the current implementation. DIESEL provides a research environment for studying different aspects of Parallel Discrete-Event Simulation, such as event management strategies, synchronization algorithms, communication mechanisms, and simulation state capture capabilities

Event list management in distributed simulation

Abstract. Efficient management of events lists is important in optimizing discrete event simulation performance. This is especially true in distributed simulation systems. The performance of simulators is directly dependent on the event list management operations such as insertion, deletion, and search. Several factors such as scheduling, checkpointing, and state management influence the organization of data structures to manage events efficiently in a distributed simulator. In this paper, we present a new organization for input event queues, called append-queues, for an optimistically synchronized parallel discrete-event simulator. Append-queues exploits the fact that events exchanged between the distributed simulators are generated in sequences with monotonically increasing time orders. A comparison of append-queues with an existing multi-list organization is developed that uses both analytical and experimental analysis to show the event management cost of different configurations. The comparison shows performance improvements ranging from 3 % to 47 % for the applications studied

Event List Management in Distributed Simulation

Efficient management of events lists is important in optimizing discrete event simulation performance. This is especially true in distributed simulation systems. The performance of simulators is directly dependent on the event list management operations such as insertion, deletion, and search. Several factors such as scheduling, checkpointing, and state management influence the organization of data structures to manage events efficiently in a distributed simulator. In this paper, we present a new organization for input event queues, called append-queues, for an optimistically synchronized parallel discrete-event simulator. Append-queues exploits the fact that events exchanged between the distributed simulators are generated in sequences with monotonically increasing time orders. A comparison of append-queues with an existing multi-list organization is developed that uses both analytical and experimental analysis to show the event management cost of different configurations. The comparison shows performance improvements ranging from 3% to 47% for the applications studied