Modelling and distributed simulation on a network of workstations

Abstract

This paper addresses the issues of applying parallel simulation techniques to accelerate simulation on a network of workstations. The Omega multistage interconnection network is used as an example application. The conservative parallel simulation synchronization scheme using conventional null-message approach to resolve deadlock problem is based on a lookahead mechanism. For some application domains, unfortunately, the lookahead information is not available. Consequently, parallel simulation using null messages can result in livelock. We propose a deadlock/livelock free scheme using null messages, but without the lookahead assumption, to coordinate the simulation. In addition, we investigate different partitioning and transformation techniques for mapping a simulation program onto a network of workstations. A flushing mechanism to address the combinatoric explosion of using null-message in conservative simulation is also discussed. Our analysis shows that the proposed flushing mechanism effectively reduces the number of null messages from exponential to linear.