Simulation of Electronic Transactions using the DEVS Formalism for SCI 2001 / ISAS 2001

摘要

Transactions over the Internet are rapidly becoming the tool of choice for users around the world to carry out an ever-increasing number of tasks. In part, this follows from satisfactory results of the first experiences in e-commerce of these users. After these first brush with Internet technology, they become more confident, and turn to online transactions more often. The economic impact of electronic transactions is beyond any doubt one the most important aspects related to the use of Internet. These transactions display very distinctive features and cause, in turn, specific demands on the underlying infrastructure. This presentation comprises the first stage of a research project focused on developing simulation models of e-commerce systems. On the basis of these models, different typical scenarios are tested. This paper introduces a general model for representing and simulating the components of the systems supporting electronic business transactions, using the DEVS (Discrete EVent System Specification) formalism. The model considers a network composed of 2 Web Servers, one servicing static page requests and the other dynamic pages (ASP, Perl, CGI, etc.). Each resource is represented a DEVS atomic model, which are coupled to form the complete networking environment.