Simulation and evaluation of replicated workflow executions

Abstract

Mobile devices are very common these days. It is rare to meet a person that does not own a mobile phone. In the past these devices were mainly used for voice calls. This changed however with the introduction of the so called smart-phones. Their powerful processors and large displays allowed a large number of new applications. Today these devices are used to check e-mails, surf the Internet or other applications that mainly use data-transmissions instead of voice calls. Today mobile standards like HSPA+ or LTE are therefore designed to provide very high data-rates. However these data-rates can only be achieved when the signal quality between mobile and base-station allows it. Since signal quality depends on a number of factors like distance to the base-station, shadowing and multipath fading, simulators for mobile communication are usually very complex. This complexity leads to long run times, which is not always acceptable.

This work will start by introducing a simulation model for mobile data-transmission, which is derived from existing work and specifications. This model will then be used to evaluate a number of heuristics, which will be introduced in the remainder of the document. These heuristics will simulate mobile communication over larger time scales, and will therefore perform faster.