Modeling and Evaluating Design Alternatives for an On-Line Instrumentation System: A Case Study

—This paper demonstrates the use of a model-based evaluation approach for instrumentation systems (ISs). The overall objective of this study is to provide early feedback to tool developers regarding IS overhead and performance; such feedback helps developers make appropriate design decisions about alternative system configurations and task scheduling policies. We consider three types of system architectures: network of workstations (NOW), symmetric multiprocessors (SMP), and massively parallel processing (MPP) systems. We develop a Resource OCCupancy (ROCC) model for an on-line IS for an existing tool and parameterize it for an IBM SP-2 platform. This model is simulated to answer several ‘what if’ questions regarding two policies to schedule instrumentation data forwarding: collect-and-forward (CF) and batch-and-forward (BF). In addition, this study investigates two alternatives for forwarding the instrumentation data: direct and binary tree forwarding for an MPP system. Simulati...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 1998
• Where: TSE
• Authors: Abdul Waheed, Diane T. Rover, Jeffrey K. Hollingsworth
• Keywords: BF Policy, Instrumentation Data, Tree Forwarding, TSE 1998