Lowering entry barriers to developing custom simulators of distributed applications and platforms with SimGrid
Résumé
Researchers in parallel and distributed computing (PDC) often resort to simulation because experiments conducted
using a simulator can be for arbitrary experimental scenarios, are less resource-, labor-, and time-consuming than their
real-world counterparts, and are perfectly repeatable and observable. Many frameworks have been developed to ease
the development of PDC simulators, and these frameworks provide different levels of accuracy, scalability, versatility,
extensibility, and usability. The SimGrid framework has been used by many PDC researchers to produce a wide range
of simulators for over two decades. Its popularity is due to a large emphasis placed on accuracy, scalability, and
versatility, and is in spite of shortcomings in terms of extensibility and usability. Although SimGrid provides sensible
simulation models for the common case, it was difficult for users to extend these models to meet domain-specific
needs. Furthermore, SimGrid only provided relatively low-level simulation abstractions, making the implementation
of a simulator of a complex system a labor-intensive undertaking. In this work we describe developments in the last
decade that have contributed to vastly improving extensibility and usability, thus lowering or removing entry barriers
for users to develop custom SimGrid simulators.
Domaines
Informatique [cs]Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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