Parallel discrete-event simulation (PDES): a case study in design, development, and performance using SPEEDES

Can parallel simulations efficiently exploit a network of workstations? Why haven´t PDES models followed standard modeling methodologies? Will the field of PDES survive, and if so, in what form? Researchers in the PDES field have addressed these questions and others in a series of papers published in the last few years. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on these questions, by documenting on actual case study of the development of an optimistically synchronized PDES application on a network of workstations. This paper is unique in that its focus is not necessarily on performance, but on the whole process of developing a model, from the physical system being simulated, through its conceptual design, validation, implementation, and, of course, its performance. This paper also presents the first reported performance results indicating the impact of risk on performance. The results suggest that the optimal value of risk is sensitive to the latency parameters of the communications network