Discrete-Event System Simulation

For Junior & Senior level simulation courses in engineering, business, or computer science.

This text provides a basic treatment of discrete-event simulation, including the proper collection and analysis of data, the use of analytic techniques, verification and validation of models, and designing simulation experiments. It offers an up-to-date treatment of simulation of manufacturing and material handling systems, computer systems, and computer networks. 

Students and instructors will find a variety of resources at the associated website, www.bcnn.net, including simulation source code for download, additional exercises and solutions, web links and errata.

Jerry Banks retired in 1999 as a professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, after which he worked as senior simulation technology advisor for Brooks Automation; he is currently an independent consultant. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of eleven books, one set of proceedings, several chapters in texts, and numerous technical papers. He is the editor of the Handbook of Simulation, published in 1998 by John Wiley, which won the award for Excellence in Engineering Handbooks from the Professional Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers, Inc. He is also author or coauthor of Getting Started with AutoMod, Second Edition, Introduction to SIMAN V and CINEMA V, Getting Started with GPSSIHH, Second Edition, Forecasting and Management of Technology and Principles of Quality Control. He was a founding partner in the simulation-consulting firm Carson/Banks & Associates, Inc., which was purchased by AutoSimulations, Inc. (now part of Brooks Automation). He is a full member of many technical societies, among them the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE); he served eight years as that organization's representative to the Board of the Winter Simulation Conference, including two years as board chair. He is the recipient of the INFORMS College on Simulation Distinguished Service Award for 1999 and was named a fellow of HE in 2002.

John S. Carson II is the consulting technical manager for the AutoMod Group at Brooks Automation. He has over 28 years experience in simulation in a wide range of application areas, including manufacturing, distribution, warehousing and material handling, transportation and rapid transit systems, port operations (container terminals and bulk handling), and health-care systems. Currently, he is involved in the design of next-generation simulation products and in the development of tools to speed up model development for semi-conductor manufacturing, distribution centers, container terminals and other areas of special interest. He co-founded and managed an independent simulation services company for 8 years, has been an independent simulation consultant, and has taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Florida, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Barry L. Nelson is the James N. and Margie M. Krebs Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University and is director of the Master of Engineering Management Program there. His research centers on the design and analysis of computer-simulation experiments on models of stochastic systems, concentrating on multivariate input modeling and output analysis and on optimization via simulation. He has published numerous papers and two books. He has served as the simulation area editor of Operations Research and as president of the INFORMS (then TIMS) College on Simulation, and he has held many positions for the annual Winter Simulation Conference, including program chair in 1997 and board member currently.

David M. Nicol is professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a long-time contributor in the field of parallel and distributed discrete-event simulations, having written one of the early Ph.D. dissertations on the topic. He has also worked in parallel algorithms, algorithms for mapping workload in parallel architectures, performance analysis, and reliability modeling and analysis. His research contributions extend to 150 articles in leading computer-science journals and conferences. His research is driven largely by problems encountered in industry and government―he has worked closely with researchers at NASA, IBM, AT&T, Bellcore, Motorola, and the Los Alamos, Sandia, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. His current interests lie in modeling and simulation of very large systems, particularly communications and other infrastructure, with applications in evaluating system security. From 1997 to 2003 he was the editor-in-chief of the ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation. Professor Nicol is a Fellow of the IEEE.