Modeling and Simulation of a High Speed LAN

Simulation is a tool that can be used to assess functionality and performance of communication networks and protocols. However, efficient simulation of complex communication systems is not a trivial task. In this paper, we discuss modeling and simulation of bus-based communication networks and present the results of modeling and simulation of a multigigabit/s LAN. We used parallel simulation techniques to reduce the simulation time of the LAN and implemented both an optimistic and a conservative parallel simulation scheme. Our experimental results on a shared memory multiprocessor indicate that the conservative parallel simulation scheme is superior to the optimistic one for this specific application. The parallel simulator based on the conservative scheme demonstrates a linear speedup for large networks.