Regenerative Simulation of a Queuing Model of an Automated Tape Library

Recently, techniques have been developed for estimating confidence intervals when simulating stochastic systems having a regenerative structure. These techniques are applied to the simulation of a queuing model of a computer system's automated tape library. Theoretical and practical issues related to the application of these techniques are addressed. An interesting feature of the automated tape library represented in the queuing model is that certain queues have finite capacity; when these queues are filled to capacity certain services are prevented from occurring. The regenerative techniques are used in conjunction with multiple comparison procedures to make statistically valid statements about the effect of the finite queue capacities on performance.