MDRIP: A Hybrid Approach to Parallelisation of Discrete Event Simulation

The research project reported in this thesis considers Multiple Distributed Replications in Parallel (MDRIP), a hybrid approach to parallelisation of quantitative stochastic discrete-event simulation. Parallel Discrete-Event Simulation (PDES) generally covers distributed simulation or simulation with replicated trials. Distributed simulation requires model partitioning and synchronisation among submodels. Simulation with replicated trials can be executed on-line by applying Multiple Replications in Parallel (MRIP). MDRIP has been proposed for overcoming problems related to the large size of simulated models and their complexity, as well as with the problem of controlling the accuracy of the final simulation results. A survey of PDES investigates several primary issues which are directly related to the parallelisation of DES. A secondary issue related to implementation efficiency is also covered. Statistical analysis as a supporting issue is described. The AKAROA2 package is an implementation of making such supporting issue effortless. Existing solutions proposed for PDES have exclusively focused on collecting of output data during simulation and conducting analysis of these data when simulation is finished. Such off-line statistical analysis of output data offers no control of statistical errors of the final estimates. On-line control of statistical errors during simulation has been successfully implemented i