TY - JOUR
T1 - Lowering entry barriers to developing custom simulators of distributed applications and platforms with SimGrid
AU - Casanova, Henri
AU - Giersch, Arnaud
AU - Legrand, Arnaud
AU - Quinson, Martin
AU - Suter, Frédéric
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025
PY - 2025/3
Y1 - 2025/3
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - SimGrid
KW - Simulation of distributed computing systems
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85215563674&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.parco.2025.103125
DO - 10.1016/j.parco.2025.103125
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85215563674
SN - 0167-8191
VL - 123
JO - Parallel Computing
JF - Parallel Computing
M1 - 103125
ER -