General Principles & Concepts in

Discrete Event Simulation

 GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Introduction
• This chapter develops a common framework for the Modeling of
complex systems using discrete-event simulation.

• It covers the basic building blocks of all discrete-event simulation

models: entities and attributes, activities and events.

• In discrete-event simulation, a system is modeled in terms of its state at

each point in time; the entities that pass through the system and the
entities that represent system resources; and the activities and events
that cause system state to change.

• It deals exclusively with dynamic, stochastic system (i.e. involving time

and containing random elements) which changes in a discrete manner.

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 Concepts in Discrete-Event Simulation
• System: A collection of entities (e.g., people and machines)
• Model: An abstract representation of a system, usually containing
structural, logical, or mathematical relationships which describe a
system in terms of state, entities and their attributes, sets,
processes, events, activities, and delays.
• System state: A collection of variables that contain all the
information necessary to describe the system at any time.
• Entity: Any object or component in the system which requires
explicit representation in the model (e.g., a server, a customer, a
machine).
• Attributes: The properties of a given entity (e.g., the priority of a
customer, the routing of a job through a job shop).

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• List: A collection of (permanently or temporarily) associated entities
ordered in some logical fashion (such as all customers currently in a
waiting line, ordered by first come, first served, or by priority).

• Event: An instantaneous occurrence that changes the state of a

system as an arrival of a new customer.

• Event notice: A record of an event to occur at the current or some

future time, along with any associated data necessary to execute the
event; at a minimum, the record includes the event type and the
event time.

• Event list: A list of event notices for future events, ordered by time
of occurrence; also known as the future event list (FEL).

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• Activity: A duration of time of specified length (e.g., a service
time or arrival time), which is known when it begins (although
it may be defined in terms of a statistical distribution).

• Delay: A duration of time of unspecified indefinite length,

which is not known until it ends (e.g., a customer's delay in a
last-in, first-out waiting line which, when it begins, depends
on future arrivals).

• Clock: A variable representing simulated time. The future

event list is ranked by the event time recorded in the event
notice.

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• An activity typically represents a service time, an inter arrival
time, or any other processing time whose duration has been
characterized and defined by the modeler.

An activity‘s duration may be specified in a number of ways:

1. Deterministic-for example, always exactly 5 minutes.

2. Statistical-for example, as a random draw from among 2,5,7

with equal probabilities.

3. A function depending on system variables and/or entity

attributes.

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• The duration of an activity is computable from its specification at
the instant it begins.

• A delay's duration is not specified by the modeler ahead of time,

but rather is determined by system conditions.

• A delay is sometimes called a conditional wait, while an activity is

called unconditional wait.

• The completion of an activity is an event, often called primary

event.

• The completion of a delay is sometimes called a conditional or

secondary event.

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• To keep track of activities and their expected completion time,
at the simulated instant that activity duration begins,
• An event notice is created having an event time equal to the
activity's completion time.

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EXAMPLE :- The Able Baker Carhop Problem
This example illustrates the simulation procedure when there is
more than one service channel. Consider a drive-in restaurant
where carhops take orders and bring food to the car. Cars arrive in
the manner given in table. There are two carhops-Able and Baker.
Able is better able to do the job and works a bit faster than Baker.
The distribution of their service times are given.

A discrete- event model has the following components:

• System State LQ(t), the number of cars waiting to be served at
time t
• LA(t), 0 or 1 to indicate Able being idle or busy at time t
• LB (t), 0 or 1 to indicate Baker being idle or busy at time t

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• Entities Neither the customers (i.e., cars) nor the servers need
to be explicitly represented, except in terms of the state
variables, unless certain customer averages are desired

• Events Arrival event, Service completion by Able, Service

completion by Baker.

• Activities Inter arrival time, Service time by Able, Service time

by Baker.

• Delay A customer's wait in queue until Able or Baker becomes

free.

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• The definition of the model components provides a static
description of the model.

• A description of the dynamic relationships and interactions

between the components is also needed.

• A discrete-event simulation: the modeling over time of a

system all of whose state changes occur at discrete points in
time-those points when an event occurs.

• A discrete-event simulation proceeds by producing a

sequence of system snapshots (or system images) which
represent the evolution of the system through time.

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The Event-Scheduling/Time-Advance Algorithm
• The mechanism for advancing simulation time and
guaranteeing that all events occur in correct chronological
order is based on the future event list (FEL).
• Future Event List (FEL) : contain all event notices for events
that have been scheduled to occur at a future time.
• Events are arranged chronologically; that is, the event times
satisfy.

t < t1 <= t2 <= t3 <= ….,<= tn

• t is the value of CLOCK, the current value of simulated time.
The event dated with time t1 is called the imminent event;
that is, it is the next event will occur.

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• Scheduling a future event means that at the instant an activity
begins, its duration is computed or drawn as a sample from a
statistical distribution and the end-activity event, together
with its event time, is placed on the future event list.

• The sequence of actions which a simulator must perform to

advance the clock system snapshot is called the event
scheduling/time-advance algorithm.

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List processing: the management of a list.
• The removal of the imminent event: As the imminent event is usually at the top of the
list, its removal is as efficient as possible.
• The addition of a new event to the list, and occasionally removal of some event (called
cancellation of an event): Addition of a new event (and cancellation of an old event)
requires a search of the list.
• The efficiency of this search depends on the logical organization of the list and on how
the search is conducted.

• When event 4 (say, an arrival event) with event time t* is generated at step 4, one
possible way to determine its correct position on the FEL is to conduct a top-down search:
• If t* < t2, place event 4 at the top of the FEL.
• If t2 < t* < t3, place event 4 second on the list.
• If t3, < t* < t4, place event 4 third on the list.
• If tn < t*, event 4 last on the list.
• Another way is to conduct a bottom-up search.
• The system snapshot at time 0 is defined by the initial conditions and the generation of
the so-called exogenous events.

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• The method of generating an external arrival stream, called bootstrapping.

• Every simulation must have a stopping event, here called E, which defines
how long the simulation will run. There are generally two ways to stop a
simulation:

1. At time 0, schedule a stop simulation event at a specified future time TE.

Thus, before simulating, it is known that the simulation will run over the
time interval [0, TE].
Example: Simulate a job shop for TE = 40 hours.

2. Run length TE is determined by the simulation itself. Generally, TE is the

time of occurrence of some specified event E.
Examples: TE is the time of the 100th service completion at a certain service
center. TE is the time of breakdown of a complex system.

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 Manual Simulation Using Event Scheduling
• In an event-scheduling simulation, a simulation table is used
to record the successive system snapshots as time advances.
• Let us consider the example of a grocery shop which has only
one checkout counter. (Single-Channel Queue)
• The system consists of those customers in the waiting line
plus the one (if any) checking out.

The model has the following components:

1. System state (LQ (t), LS (t)),
• where LQ (t) is the number of customers in the waiting line,
and LS (t) is the number being served (0 or 1) at time t.

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2. Entities: The server and customers are not explicitly modeled, except in
terms of the state variables above.
3. Events
• Arrival (A)
• Departure (D)
• Stopping event (E), scheduled to occur at time 60.
4. Event notices
• (A, t). Representing an arrival event to occur at future time t
• (D, t), representing a customer departure at future time t
• (E, 60), representing the simulation-stop event at future time 60
5. Activities
• Inter arrival time
• Service time
6. Delay
• Customer time spent in waiting line.
• In this model, the FEL will always contain either two or three event
notices.
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• The inter arrival times and service times will be

Initial conditions
• the system snapshot at time zero (CLOCK = 0)
• LQ(0) = 0, LS(0) = 1
• both a departure event and arrival event on the FEL.
• The simulation is scheduled to stop at time 60.
• Server utilization: total server busy time (B) / total time (TE).
• Maximum queue length MQ
• a* : the generated inter arrival time
• s* : the generated service times

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The simulation Table for check out counter - covers the time interval [0, 21]
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• As soon as the system snapshot at time CLOCK = 0 is
complete, the simulation begins.
• At time 0, the imminent event is (D, 4).
• The CLOCK is advanced to time 4, and (D, 4) is removed from
the FEL.
• Since LS(t) = 1 for 0 <= t <= 4 (i.e., the server was busy for 4
minutes), the cumulative busy time is Increased from B = 0 to
B = 4.
• By the event logic in Figure 1(B), set LS (4) = 0 (the server
becomes idle).
• The FEL is left with only two future events, (A, 8) and (E, 0).
• The simulation CLOCK is next advanced to time 8 and an
arrival event is executed.

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Suppose the system analyst desires to estimate
• Mean response time: the average length of time a customer
spends in the system
• Mean proportion of customers who spend 4 or more minutes
in the system
• Entities (Ci, t ): representing customer Ci who arrived at time t
• Event notices:
• (A, t, Ci), the arrival of customer Ci at future time t
• (D, t, Cj), the departure of customer Cj at future time t
• Set : “CHECKOUTLINE” the set of all customers currently at the
checkout counter (being served or waiting to be served),
ordered by time of arrival
• A customer entity with arrival time as an attribute is added in
order to estimate mean response time.
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Three new cumulative statistics will be collected :
• S : the sum of customer response times for all customers who have
departed by the current time
• F : the total number of customers who spend 4 or more minutes at
the checkout counter
• ND: the total number of departures up to the current simulation
time.
• These three cumulative statistics will be updated whenever the
departure event occurs.

The response time for customer is computed by

• Response time = CLOCK TIME - attribute “time of arrival”
• For a simulation run length of 21 minutes
• The average response time was S/ND = 15/4 = 3.75 minutes
• The observed proportion of customers who spent 4 or more
minutes in the system was F/ND = 0.75.
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 Example - (The Dump Truck Problem)
Six dump trucks are used to haul coal from the entrance of a
small mine to the railroad. Each truck is loaded by one of two
loaders. After loading, a truck immediately moves to scale, to be
weighted as soon as possible. Both the loaders and the scale
have a first come, first serve waiting line(or queue) for trucks.
The time taken to travel from loader to scale is considered
negligible. After being weighted, a truck begins a travel time and
then afterward returns to the loader queue.

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Distribution of Loading for the Dump Truck

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The activity times are taken from the following list as needed:

System state [LQ(t), L(t), WQ(t), W(t)]

• LQ(t) = number of trucks in loader queue
• L(t) = number of trucks (0, 1, or 2) being loaded
• WQ(t) = number of trucks in weigh queue
• W(t) = number of trucks (0 or 1) being weighed, all at simulation time t

Event notices :
• (ALQ, t, DTi ), dump truck i arrives at loader queue (ALQ) at time t
• (EL, t, DTi), dump truck i ends loading (EL) at time t
• (EW, t, DTi), dump truck i ends weighing (EW) at time t

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• Entities : The six dump trucks (DT 1, … , DT 6)
• Lists :
1. Loader queue : all trucks waiting to begin loading, ordered on a first
come, first served basis
2. Weigh queue : all trucks waiting to be weighed, ordered on a first
come, first served basis

• Activities : Loading time, weighing time, and travel time

• Delays : Delay at loader queue, and delay at scale
• It has been assumed that five of the trucks are at the loaders
and one is at the scale at time 0.

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 System State Lists Cumulative
Statistics
Clock LQ(t) L(t) WQ(t) W(t) Loader Weigh Future Event BL BS
t Queue Queue List
0 3 2 0 1 DT4 (EL, 5, DT3) 0 0
DT5 (EL, 10, DT2)
DT6 (EW, 12, DT1)

5 2 2 1 1 DT5 DT3 (EL, 10, DT2) 10 5

DT6 (EL, 5 + 5,
DT4)
(EW, 12, DT1)

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 System State Lists Cumulative
Statistics
Clock LQ(t) L(t) WQ(t) W(t) Loader Weigh Future Event BL BS
t Queue Queue List
10 1 2 2 1 DT6 DT3 (EL, 10, DT4) 20 10
DT2 (EW, 12, DT1)
(EL, 10 + 10, DT5)

10 0 2 3 1 DT3 (EW, 12, DT1) 20 10

DT2 (EL, 20, DT5)
DT4 (EL, 10 + 15, DT6)

12 0 2 2 1 DT2 (EL, 20, DT5) 24 12

DT4 (EW,12+12,DT3)
(EL, 25, DT6)
(ALQ,12+60,DT1)

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 System State Lists Cumulative
Statistics
Clock LQ(t) L(t) WQ(t) W(t) Loader Weigh Future Event BL BS
t Queue Queue List
20 0 1 3 1 DT2 (EW, 24, DT3) 40 20
DT4 (EL, 25, DT6)
DT5 (ALQ, 72, DT1)

24 0 1 2 1 DT4 (EL, 25, DT6) 44 24

DT5 (EW, 24+12, DT2)
(ALQ, 72, DT1)
(ALQ, 24+100,
DT3)

25 0 0 3 1 DT4 (EW, 36, DT2) 45 25

DT5 (ALQ, 72, DT1)
DT6 (ALQ, 124, DT3)

36 0 0 2 1 DT5 (EW, 36+16. DT4) 45 52

DT6 (ALQ, 72, DT1)
(ALQ, 36+40, DT2)
(ALQ, 124, DT3
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 System State Lists Cumulative
Statistics
Clock LQ(t) L(t) WQ(t) W(t) Loader Weigh Future Event List BL BS
t Queue Queue
52 0 0 1 1 DT6 (EW, 52+12, DT5) 45 52
(ALQ, 72, DT1)
(ALQ, 76, DT2)
(ALQ, 52+40, DT4)
(ALQ, 124, DT3)

64 0 0 0 1 (ALQ, 72, DT1) 45 64

(ALQ, 76, DT2)
(EW, 64+16, DT6)
(ALQ, 92, DT4)
(ALQ, 124, DT3)
(ALQ, 64+80, DT5)

72 0 1 0 1 (ALQ, 76, DT2) 45 72

(EW, 80, DT6)
(EL, 72+10, DT1)
(ALQ, 92, DT4)
(ALQ, 124, DT3)
(ALQ, 144, DT5

76 0 2 0 1 (EW, 80, DT6) 49 76

(EL, 82, DT1)
(EL, 76+10, DT2)
(ALQ, 92, DT4)
(ALQ, 124, DT3)
(ALQ, 144, DT5

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This logic for the occurrence of the end-loading event
• When an end-loading (EL) event occurs, say for truck j at time
t , other events may be triggered.
• If the scale is idle [W (t) =0], truck j begins weighing and an
end-weighing event (EW) is scheduled on the FEL.
• Otherwise, truck j joins the weigh queue.
• If at this time there is another truck waiting for a loader, it will
be removed from the loader queue and will begin loading by
the scheduling of an end-loading event (EL) on the FEL.

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In order to estimate the loader and scale utilizations, two
cumulative statistics are maintained:
• BL = total busy time of both loaders from time 0 to time t
• BS = total busy time of the scale from time 0 to time t

• The utilizations are estimated as follows:

• Average loader utilization

• Average scale utilization

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