Atlas: A distributed system for the simulation of large-scale systems

This paper introduces a novel distributed computing environment designed as a simulation tool for the analysis of large and disaggregated data flows. Our research is based on a mapping between a large scale system, in which the interest of study is the modelling of disaggregated data flows, and a distributed computing environment, both being modelled as a graph. This distributed computing environment is a middleware that supports management and migration of computing objects. Its dynamic properties replicate the behaviour of large data flows, i.e., entities travelling between the different nodes of a graph. It also supports distribution and processing of objects at the appropriate level of granularity: the nodes of the computing graph. Such a property gives a high level of flexibility and scalability to the system, computing objects being distributed and processed at the local middleware level. The potential of our middleware is illustrated by a case study that simulates large passenger flows between the halls of an airport terminal. Keywords distributed object computing, large-scale systems, disaggregated data modelling, transportation simulation 1