Performance Analysis of Future Event Sets

H. Damerdji and P. W. Glynn

Proceedings of the 1995 Winter Simulation Conference, 316-321 (1995)

The linked list and indexed list future event sets are investigated. The interaction hold model and the Jackson network model are the underlying stochastic models considered. For the interaction hold model and for the (doubly) linked list, we find, for example, the mean number of key comparisons performed in order to find a record's insertion point into the list; this is useful when deciding whether to scan from the head or the tail of the list. The distribution of the relative position of the to-be-inserted record is also obtained; for indexed lists, this is helpful when deciding the number of sublists and position(s) of the middle pointer(s). The Jackson network model has a realistic event logic, but events are restricted to be exponentially distributed. Because the stationary probabilities can be computed for this model, it is then possible to evaluate and compare the (steady-state) performance of certain future event sets (e.g. linked lists scanned from the head or the tail).