Discrete Event Simulation

This chapter describes in detail discrete event systems and discrete event simulation (DES), from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The theoretical part focuses on the concepts, definitions and methods used in DES. The practical part offers details on how to build a simulation for a single‐server queueing system. A logic relationship between simulator components and their corresponding working flow is illustrated. The state of an order changes from ‘order dispatched’ to ‘order delivered’ at the occurrence of the event: goods of an order are received by buyer and delivery document is signed. These types of systems are called discrete event systems. DES models are discrete event systems that change at only a countable number of time points, where the time points correspond to the occurrence of events. Models of a discrete event simulation include the following entities: server, clients, queue, events, and process.