Large Scale Simulation of Manufacturing and Communications Systems

这项拨款为制造和通信系统中出现的复杂系统的大型网络模型的性能评估方法的研究提供资金。头脑中的系统是如此复杂，以至于模拟通常是对系统进行基准测试的唯一可行工具。不幸的是，模拟并不是一种特别可扩展的技术。研究重点是通过利用系统动力学的先验知识，开发快速有效的复杂系统仿真方法。这种先验知识可以通过考察“流体模型”获得，例如，“流体模型”是复杂系统的理想化模型，其中所有实体都被建模为流经管道的流体。我们对流体模型了解很多，希望这些信息能带来非常有效的模拟方法。如果成功，这项研究的结果将确保模拟成为一个比以前更可扩展的工具，用于大型系统。中心思想是可以在（远）更少的时间内获得更准确的结果。然后，可以实现更有效的算法来搜索不同的操作策略，以确定最佳操作策略，或者至少是比现有策略更好的操作策略。

This grant provides funding for research on methods for performance evaluation of large network models of complex systems that arise in manufacturing and communication systems. The systems in mind are so complex that simulation is typically the only viable tool for benchmarking the system. Unfortunately, simulation is not a particularly scalable technology. The research focuses on developing fast and efficient simulation methods for complex systems, by exploiting prior knowledge of the system's dynamics. Such prior knowledge may be obtained from examination of a "fluid model", for example, which is an idealized model of complex systems where all entities are modeled as fluids flowing through pipes. A great deal is known about fluid models, and the hope is that this information can lead to very efficient simulation methods.If successful, the results of this research will ensure that simulation becomes a more scalable tool than before for a large class of systems. The central idea is that more accurate results may be obtained in (far) less time than would otherwise be the case. One can then implement more efficient algorithms for searching over different operating policies to determine the best operating policy, or at the very least one that is better than the existing policy.