Java']Java based conservative distributed simulation

Distributed discrete event simulation techniques aim at an acceleration of the execution of a self-contained simulation model by the spatial decomposition of that model and the concurrent simulation of the submodels by so called logical processes (LPs), each executing on a dedicated node of a (closed) multiprocessor system. The dedication of parallel simulators to specific platforms and their adaptation to the respective hardware and software intrinsics has widely preventend an industrial and/or commercial success of such high performance simulation methods. In this work we propose the building of logical process simulators that use the World Wide Web as an execution platform. We have developed and implemented a Java-based simulation engine along the conservative Chandy/Misra/Bryant (CMB) synchronization protocol, allowing for a platform independent, scalable, and performance efficient distributed simulation model execution. Our simulation engine is open and general purpose in the sense that it can be reused in various simulation domains by simply "plugging in" different simulation models, and simulation codes that, once written, can be executed, anywhere (on the Internet). The potential performance improvement of Web-based distributed simulation is investigated in a sensitivity analysis conducted on a hypothetical simulation model executed in a Java-enabled workstation LAN. Even for very small simulation models, a speedup of about 3.5 could be attained on a 4 processor (heterogeneous) host LAN.