Application of modeling and simulation in m/m/s queue system- understanding the nature of simulation

Abstract

Simulation becomes a study approach used in various applications, in engineering. Simulation is the behavior representation of a real process through an experimental model in order to evaluate its operation and seek improvements in its performance. The application of simulation is of great interest if the issue in question is not so simple and requires a more realistic modeling. This article proposes a discussion that has as background the comparison of Analytical Methods versus Numerical Methods. The analytical methods are applied to M/M/s queue aiming to show the Engineering students that, in intuitive, fairly simple and quick way, the solutions obtained by the simulation approach are approximate and more consistent when we understand the nature of the simulation. The experimental part uses the Microsoft Excel software to demonstrate important issues such as the warm-up time to obtain the steady state and the simulation replication number. The experiments showed that the simulation values converge to the theoretical values only after a very large simulation time. And further, the replications always present variability, and that the output results should be treated statistically.