PASE: A performance analysis simulation environment

Performance simulation is one of the approaches used to estimate the quantitative behaviour of inter-connection networks of parallel and distributed systems. This paper presents both a discrete-event network simulation environment for multiprocessor systems, and a methodology for simulation. The simulator provides A Network Initiated Simulation Oriented Language (ANISOL) which allows the user to define environmental factors, network topologies and the load sharing strategies in both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems. The simulator is flexible enough to simulate various interconnection network topologies and processing environments. Features required to simulate massively parallel processors, such as fault tolerance, are also included. This simulation environment has been used to study a range of different architectures and preliminary results have shown that the accuracy of the outputs is comparable to other techniques.