Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• WHY?
We need to conduct experiments "on some reality" and the
reality - although pre-existing - is not available for our
experiments.
Examples:
a) a busy network of computers that cannot be taken over just
for the experiment;
b) a busy superhighway system on which we want to "change
the rules of traffic";
c) a chemical plant whose production cannot be stopped so
that "we can tinker with it"; etc..
Discrete Event Simulation - 1
•What characteristic do these example share?
They simply have to do with our lack of access to an existing
artifact: the simulation allows us to construct a useful model of
the artifact, that we can then use as though it were the
inaccessible artifact. The goal is to determine whether a
planned change to the USE of the artifact can be implemented
while producing the desired results and no undesired ones.
• Simulation (Shannon):
• Some terminology.
A) System Environment: the collection of external factors
capable of causing a change in the system.
B) State of a System: the minimal collection of information with
which the future behavior of a system can be reliably (uniquely?)
predicted.
C) Activity: any events that causes a State Change.
D) Endogenous Activity: one occurring inside the system.
E) Exogenous Activity: one occurring outside the system.
Discrete Event Simulation - 1