Case studies in performance modelling and simulation of client/server systems
Thierry Delaitre, Stefan Poslad, Stephen C. Winter, Péter Kacsuk · 1997
The performance of client/server systems is complex and highly dependent on a number of interacting issues such as workloads, processor interconnection, mapping issues, processor type and communications medium making the realisation of a fast, efficient implementation difficult and time consuming. This can be further complicated if computer systems are not exclusively dedicated to one processing activity. A key obstacle to the delivery of client/server systems is the inability to build a scalable sys-tem which needs the performance criteria set before development and which often change during development and commissioning of the system. Often, it would be useful if the per-formance of the system could be predicted in different scenarios such as increasing the num-ber of clients, increasing the number of servers, changing the bandwidth of the network, varying the cache size, etc. In this paper, a simulation-based toolset to support modelling and performance predictions is presented. This development environment is composed of a graphical modelling tool, a simulation facility, and a design tool. Simulation allows client/server program performance to be predicted on target systems and design alternatives to be compared. The target system models a cluster of workstations interconnected by a local area and / or wide area network. The simulation model architecture is modular and extensible which allows re-configuration of the client/server system. The paper will emphasise case studies based on client/server systems developed for industry. 1.