Planning Simulation Run Length in Packet Queues in Communications Networks

Abstract

Simulation is a technique of growing importance and is becoming an indispensable tool applied in various academic industries, including packet networks. Simulation provides an alternative research approach to implementing a real environment, owing to its features of scalability, exibility and ease of setup. However, simulating large-scale networks can be very time and resource consuming. It can take several days to run one long simulation experiment, which may be expensive or even unaffordable. Therefore, planning simulation is important. This research proposes to plan simulation run length through predicting the required shortest run length that approximates steady-state, in the form of mathematical and logical expressions, i.e. building an analytical model. Previously related research always focused on classical models, such as the M/M/1 queue model, M/G/1 queue model, and so on. This research expands the research base to include a packet multiplexing model of homogenous sources which is widely accepted and used. This thesis investigates different traffic types (Markovian/Pareto) and different QoS parameter (delay/losses), as well as applying them to end-to-end networks. These scenarios are analysed and expressed, in terms of different desired precision level. Final results show that run length time is well predicted using the developed analytical model, which can be a guide for simulation planning in packet networks of the present and the future. This can be of great significance for performance evaluation studies.