Discrete Event Simulation
In discrete-event simulation (DES), the operation of a system is represented as a chronological sequence of events. Each event occurs at an instant in time and marks a change of state in the system. For example, if an elevator is simulated, an event could be "level 6 button pressed", with the resulting system state of "lift moving" and eventually (unless one chooses to simulate the failure of the lift) "lift at level 6".
A number of mechanisms have been proposed for carrying out discrete-event simulation, among them are the event-based, activity-based, process-based and three-phase approaches (Pidd, 1998). The three-phase approach is used by a number of commercial simulation software packages, but from the user's point of view, the specifics of the underlying simulation method are generally hidden.
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