Cost Tradeoffs Between Local and Remote Computing.
Abstract
A major problem in communication networks analysis is to determine the degree of centralization of computer power that is desirable from both an operational and cost/benefit point of view. An example of this problem occurs in a manufacturing complex wherein decisions must be made on the distribution of data, process power, and redundancy. Because of the many parameters involving hardware, system software, and communications, a purely analytical approach is often impractical. The method here is to employ an analytical simulation model to obtain measures of cost, throughout, and response time. After the mode itself is examined, focus is placed on several experiments which reveal the superiority of semi-centralized configurations. Application to logistic and manufacturing systems are explored along with the development of a network link construction method. The above mentioned experiments reveal the dependence of the analysis on the characteristics of the actual or anticipated message traffic. For a manufacturing system, a method is developed for isolating parts of a computer network as a specific degree of importance to the network functioning and failing. This is examined in the context of the message traffic rather than graph theoretic methods. More specifically, in a manufacturing environment the importance of hardware, management information systems, and data bases to the functioning of a computer network system is considered. (Modified author abstract)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 25, 1973
- Accession Number
- AD0767071
Entities
People
- Bennet P. Lientz
Organizations
- University of Southern California