Efficient Computing Budget Allocation for Simulation-based Optimization with Stochastic Simulation Time

TL;DR

This paper addresses the challenge of allocating computational resources efficiently in simulation-based optimization when simulation times are stochastic, introducing an asymptotically optimal method called OCBAS.

Contribution

It extends the OCBA method to stochastic simulation times, providing a new allocation strategy with proven asymptotic optimality.

Findings

OCBAS is asymptotically optimal for stochastic simulation times.

The mean simulation time determines performance estimation accuracy.

OCBAS performs well in a wireless sensor network smoke detection case.

Abstract

The dynamics of many systems nowadays follow not only physical laws but also man-made rules. These systems are known as discrete event dynamic systems and their performances can be accurately evaluated only through simulations. Existing studies on simulation-based optimization (SBO) usually assume deterministic simulation time for each replication. However, in many applications such as evacuation, smoke detection, and territory exploration, the simulation time is stochastic due to the randomness in the system behavior. We consider the computing budget allocation for SBO's with stochastic simulation time in this paper, which has not been addressed in existing literatures to the author's best knowledge. We make the following major contribution. The relationship between simulation time and performance estimation accuracy is quantified. It is shown that when the asymptotic performance is of interest only the mean value of individual simulation time matters. Then based on the existing optimal computing budget allocation (OCBA) method for deterministic simulation time we develop OCBA for stochastic simulation time (OCBAS), and show that OCBAS is asymptotically optimal. Numerical experiments are used to discuss the impact of the variance of simulation time, the impact of correlated simulation time and performance estimation, and to demonstrate the performance of OCBAS on a smoke detection problem in wireless sensor network. The numerical results also show that OCBA for deterministic simulation time is robust even when the simulation time is stochastic.