An Approach to the Workload Characterization Problem

A major problem in the evaluation of the performance of a multiprogrammed computer system is the development of an accurate description of its normal workload. This paper formulates the workload characterization problem for a computing environment and presents three types of simplified models for the system workload. The probabilistic models of the workload presented here can be validated with respect to the real workload and are easy to use in a performance evaluation study. The results of a study of the workloads on the Univac 1108 computer at the Computer Science Center of the University of Maryland are also presented.