Performance and granularity control in the SPaDES parallel simulation system

Abstract

Parallel simulation has the potential to accelerate the execution of simulation applications. However, developing a parallel discrete-event simulation from scratch requires an in-depth knowledge of the mapping process from the physical model to the simulation model, and a substantial effort in optimising performance. This paper presents an overview of the SPaDES (Structured Parallel Discrete-Event Simulation) parallel simulation framework. We focus on the performance analysis of SPaDES/C++, an implementation of SPaDES on a distributed-memory Fujitsu AP3000 parallel computer. SPaDES/C++ hides the underlying complex parallel simulation synchronization and parallel programming details from the simulationist. Our empirical results show that the SPaDES framework can deliver good speedup if the process granularity is properly optimised.