A framework for end-to-end simulation of high-performance computing systems

ABSTRACT

We present an end-to-end simulation framework that is capable of simulating High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems with hundreds of thousands of interconnected processors. The tool applies discrete event simulation and is driven by real-world application traces. We refer to it as MARS (MPI Application Replay network Simulator). It maintains reasonable simulation details of both the processors in general and specifically the interconnection network. Among other things, it features several network topologies, flexible routing schemes, arbitrary application task placement, point-to-point statistics collection, and data visualization. With a few case studies, we demonstrate the usefulness of this tool for assisting high-level system design as well as for performance projection and application tuning of future HPC systems.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.8 Types of Simulation
          Subjects: Parallel; Discrete event

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Performance

Keywords:
end-to-end simulation, high-performance computing, interconnection network