A distributed system simulation modelling approach

Abstract

The employment of network-based technologies, such as the WWW and middleware platforms, significantly increased the complexity of distributed application, as well as the Quality-of-Service requirements for the underlying network. Distributed application modelling is nowadays far more demanding than network modelling, where numerous solutions are already employed in commercial tools. We introduce a simulation modelling approach for distributed systems, giving emphasis to distributed applications. The proposed scheme enables the in-depth description of application functionality, the accurate estimation of network load and the extension of existing application models to support further customisation. It supports widely employed architectural models, such as the client–server model and its variations, and is based on multi-layer decomposition. Application functionality is described using pre-defined operations, which can be further decomposed into simpler ones, ultimately resulting into elementary actions corresponding to primitive network operations, such as transfer and processing. Even if realisation of this scheme proves to be time demanding, individual application modelling is performed with consistency and considerably lower overhead. The distributed system simulation environment built to realise the proposed modelling scheme and a case study indicating key features of the overall approach are also presented.