Colloquium Speaker

Speaker:	Maria Hybinette Georgia Institute of Technology
Topic:	Cloning Parallel Simulations
Date:	Monday, April 9, 2001
Time:	3:00 PM
Place:	Gould-Simpson, Room 701

ABSTRACT

High performance simulations are becoming an important tool for real-time decision making. Example applications include air traffic control, battlefield management and network routing. I am interested in the research challenges involved in interactive parallel computing including the techniques to provide for what-if scenario analysis, collaborative capabilities and fast and effective simulation engines.

In my talk I will present a cloning mechanism for parallel discrete simulators that enables the evaluation of multiple simulated futures. Performance of the mechanism is analyzed and evaluated experimentally on a shared memory multiprocessor. A running parallel discrete event simulation is dynamically cloned at "decision points" to explore different execution paths concurrently. In this way what-if and alternative scenario analysis can be performed in applications such as gaming or tactical and strategic battle management. A construct called "virtual logical processes" avoids repeating common computations among clones and improves efficiency. The advantages of cloning are preserved regardless of the number of clones (or execution paths). Our performance results with a commercial air traffic control simulation demonstrate that cloning can significantly reduce the time required to compute multiple alternate futures.