SEECSSim: A toolkit for parallel and distributed simulations for mobile devices

Abstract

The rapid increase of the computing power on embedded and handheld devices has made these devices attractive for many applications including simulation systems. There are a number of Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES) frameworks that exists but most of these are designed for traditional cluster systems and are not suitable for battery operated devices where energy and power consumption are among the major concerns. A new PDES framework is thus required that takes into account the typical constraints of the mobile devices. However, before designing a new PDES framework that is specifically aimed for mobile devices, it is helpful to analyze the performance of existing frameworks. In this paper, the well-known Rensselaer's Optimistic Simulation System (ROSS) framework has been instrumented for a detailed analysis of its performance in terms of CPU usage, memory consumption, and energy and power requirements. This profiling helps in many ways. For example, we can select the most appropriate synchronizations algorithm for running the PDES frameworks on the mobile devices. Additionally, identification of resource intensive modules within the framework can be extremely useful in redesign/optimization of these frameworks while being ported to the heterogeneous environments. Based on these observations, we propose a new simulation framework that is specifically designed for running on handheld devices. The simulation framework, that is called SEECSSim 1 , is the first one designed keeping in mind the characteristics and the constraints that are typical of mobile devices. SEECSSim includes the support for a number of state-of-the-art synchronization protocols and, thanks to its flexible design, the users can easily integrate any other simulation model/synchronization algorithm of their choice. The proposed framework dynamically manages simulation on devices and also perform process migration to optimize the use of resources. The performance of SEECSSim has been studied using a well-known simulation model (i.e. PHOLD) for different synchronization algorithms.