Event-Aware Dynamic Time Step Synchronization Method for Distributed Moving Object Simulation

Atsuo Ozaki, Masashi Shiraishi, Shusuke Watanabe, Minoru Miyazawa, Masakazu Furuichi, Hiroyuki Sato

Abstract: In computer simulation of a large number of moving objects (MOs), how to enlarge <I>Δt</I> (the interval between the simulation time steps) without introducing causality errors is one of the primary keys to enhancing performance. Causality errors can be avoided by using the same <I>Δt</I> among related MOs when they are in the scene of detection (SoD). But in a large-scale MO simulation, MOs interact with one another in a complicated manner requiring a large calculation cost to predict the beginning time of SoD. In this paper we propose an event-aware dynamic time step synchronization method (DTSS) for distributed MO simulation, which increases <I>Δt</I> without introducing causality errors and speeds up the simulation. DTSS can be implemented with little calculation cost because: (1) DTSS does not calculate the beginning time of SoD exactly, but calculates the time for possible entry into SoD with a simple mechanisim, and (2) MO simulation consists of a