Arena

A commercial simulation software, product of Rockwell Software corp. A graphical modeling environment that uses SIMAN simulation language Suited for simulation of discrete-event systems

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SIMAN language and Arena

SIMAN is a general-purpose simulation language that builds upon early languages such as SLAM In Arena the structures of SIMAN are implemented as graphical modeling objects Simulations models are built by placing these objects on a drawing board and linking the objects to define the model logic (basically a flow-chart of the system is constructed) In simulations the Arena model is parsed into SIMAN code, then compiled and executed

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Concepts
The modeling constructs in Arena are called modules Arena contains a wide variety of modules that are organized into different libraries called templates or panels All modules are composed of SIMAN components, different amounts of functions are aggregated in higher and lower level modules Modules of different hierarcy levels can be used interchangeably New templates and modules can be created by using existing components or user-written VB, C/C++ or FORTRAN code S ysteemianalyysin
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Arenas hierarchical structure

Lower
User-written Visual Basic, C/C++ or FORTRAN code Blocks and elements panels Flexibility of SIMAN language

Level of Modeling
Support and Transfer panels Less detail More easy to use Common panel Common modeling contructs Easy to use Application solution templates Call$im etc.

Higher
User-created templates Commonly used constructs Company specific templates

SIMAN template

Arena template

Arena standard edition Arena professional edition

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[Kelton, Sadowski and Sadowski, Simulation with Arena, McGraw-Hill, 1998.]

Modeling a system
Basic idea: modules represent different operations that are launched as entities enter the modules
entity experiences a delay before it moves on a signal is sent a value is assigned to a variable

Process oriented simulation

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Example: a single server system

Arrive
Arrive 1 Server 1

Server

Depart
Depart 1

Simulate

Arrive

Depart Server
Simulate

Defines the arrival process of simulation entities into the system The departure of entities from the system A Workstation with associated resources and a queue Parameters related to the simulation run
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Constructing a model
Flowchart type modules define the routing of simulation entities trough the system
Arrive, Depart, Server

Elements are special modules where additional data is defined: general parameters (replication length, number of replications) , variables, attributes (entity related properties), resources, output statistics
Simulate

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Constructing a model
Input data is added simply by double-clicking the modules and filling in the appearing dialogue windows A server module:

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Constructing a model
Most entries in module dialogues can be
Constants Variables or attributes, user-defiened or internal

TNOW, NQ(Queue_name)
Discrete or continuous distributions

DISC(Probability1, Value1,...) GAMM(beta, alpha), NORM(Mean, StdDev),...

Expressions that combine some or all of these,

Minimum_process_time+NORM(Mean_process_time ,Mean_process_time*0.33)

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Statistics collection
By default, Arena automatically collects statistics on variables related to
Entities (e.g. work in process) Queues (e.g. number in queue) System (Total value added cost) Resources (Utilization)

Additional statistics can be collected with the help of certain modules (Tally, Counter and DStat) Reports are automatically generated at the end of a simulation run

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Animation
Animation features are an integral part of the Arena modeling environment Two ways to animate a model
Through connector animation: Connectors of the model logic flowchart are animated Through facility based animation: Animation is constructed of special animation objects that represent the physical locations of processes
Arrive
Arrive 1 Server 1

Server

Depart
Depart 1

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Tools
Input analyzer
Fitting probability distributions to data sets

Output analyzer
Statistical analysis of output data Confidence intervals, statistical tests, visualization

Scenario manager
Managing experiments Conduction of multiple runs with different parameter values

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Material
Official website
http://www.arenasimulation.com/

A short tutorial
http://minitorn.tpu.ee/~jaagup/uk/ds/chp8/c8-01.htm

Books
Kelton, Sadowski and Sadowski, Simulation with Arena, McGraw-Hill, 1998

Arena documentation
Online help SMART files, small examples of various modeling concepts Larger example models

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