Discrete-event simulation: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:54, 8 January 2024

Revision as of 06:54, 8 January 2024

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{{Short description|Type of simulation}}

A '''discrete-event simulation''' ('''DES''') models the operation of a [[system]] as a ([[discrete time|discrete]]) [[sequence of events]] in time. Each event occurs at a particular instant in time and marks a change of [[State (computer science)|state]] in the system.<ref>{{cite book|title=''Simulation – The practice of model development and use''|author=Stewart Robinson|publisher=Wiley|year=2004}}[https://spinthewheel.io]</ref> Between consecutive events, no change in the system is assumed to occur; thus the simulation time can directly jump to the occurrence time of the next event, which is called '''next-event time progression'''.

In addition to next-event time progression, there is also an alternative approach, called '''incremental time progression''', where time is broken up into small time slices and the system state is updated according to the set of events/activities happening in the time slice.<ref name="matloff">{{cite web|last=Matloff|first=Norm|title=Introduction to Discrete-Event Simulation and the SimPy Language|url=http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/156/PLN/DESimIntro.pdf|access-date=24 January 2013}}</ref> Because not every time slice has to be simulated, a next-event time simulation can typically run faster than a corresponding incremental time simulation.