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Define "continuous simulation" in line with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_simulation, as opposed to "fixed-increment time progression simulation". |
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A '''discrete-event simulation''' ('''DES''') models the operation of a [[system]] as a [[discrete time|discrete]] [[sequence of events|series 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}}</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 '''fixed-increment 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|accessdate=24 January 2013}}</ref> Because not every time slice has to be simulated, a next-event time simulation can typically run much faster than a corresponding fixed-increment time simulation.
Both forms of DES contrast with [[continuous simulation]] in which the system state is changed continuously over time on the basis of a set of differential equations defining the rates of change of state variables.
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