MPSS ­ Multi Process System Simulator

MPSS simulates the behavior of a high traffic transaction processing system. An effective use of MPSS is the analysis of the impact of exclusive control of system resources over multiple processes. MPSS consists of a control process and multiple application processes. The control process is designed to simulate a transaction processing monitor. It initiates and oversees multiple application processes running concurrently. An application process behaves as a transaction processing application, however it does not access databases, or communicate with remote users. Instead, it consumes CPU, holds system resources, and waits for an event or a resource by invoking system calls provided by the MPSS system call library. Some of the system calls provided are LOCK and UNLOCK, both for controlling exclusive use of a resource, and WAIT, for an event of a resource to be released by other processes or for a defined time period to simulate process wait for events such as I/O completions. All the activities are traced and logged for later analysis. MPSS can also be used as a test bed for a system call library routine in testing and/or evaluating its effect to the system. It is also possible to test a new application model in the MPSS environment in regard to its affect to existing system activities before going into production.