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Measuring and Comparing Scalability of Agent-Based Simulation Frameworks

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Multiagent System Technologies (MATES 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9433))

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Abstract

While computer simulation gained importance as a technique for generating knowledge in various research disciplines, the size of simulation models representing real world scenarios is growing, too. In Social Simulation, e.g., there is a need to simulate a large number of humans using individual software agents for generating and analyzing human-like behavior in artificial societies. Nowadays, a variety of toolkits and frameworks exists providing functionalities for supporting implementation and execution of simulation experiments. Yet, the choice of a suitable framework is difficult as unforeseen scalability issues may arise when extending agent models. Therefore, this paper aims at providing a method for analyzing and comparing agent-based simulation frameworks regarding their ability to scale simulation models and experiments. Based on performance metrics, standardized experiments are conducted while altering internal and external scaling parameters. As part of the study, four Java-based agent frameworks are analyzed and compared: Aimpulse Spectrum, JADE, MASON, and Repast.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://repast.sourceforge.net/repast_hpc.php (last visited Oct. 3, 2015).

  2. 2.

    http://www.flamegpu.com (last visited Oct. 3, 2015).

  3. 3.

    http://www.anylogic.com (last visited Oct. 3, 2015).

  4. 4.

    http://www.aimpulse.com (last visited Oct. 3, 2015).

  5. 5.

    http://jade.tilab.com (last visited Oct. 3, 2015).

  6. 6.

    http://cs.gmu.edu/~eclab/projects/mason (last visited Oct. 3, 2015).

  7. 7.

    http://repast.sourceforge.net/repast_3 (last visited Oct. 3, 2015).

  8. 8.

    A virtual machine (VM) emulates a real computer system. Doing so, hardware configurations can be adjusted easily and without physically modifying the system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business Informatics I, University of Trier, 54296, Trier, Germany

    Fabian Lorig, Nils Dammenhayn, David-Johannes Müller & Ingo J. Timm

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  1. Fabian Lorig
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  2. Nils Dammenhayn
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  3. David-Johannes Müller
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  4. Ingo J. Timm
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Correspondence to Fabian Lorig .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany

    Jörg P. Müller

  2. Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Wolf Ketter

  3. Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Gal Kaminka

  4. Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany

    Gerd Wagner

  5. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Nils Bulling

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Lorig, F., Dammenhayn, N., Müller, DJ., Timm, I.J. (2015). Measuring and Comparing Scalability of Agent-Based Simulation Frameworks. In: Müller, J., Ketter, W., Kaminka, G., Wagner, G., Bulling, N. (eds) Multiagent System Technologies . MATES 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9433. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27343-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27343-3_3

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