Optimal Design of an Interactive System: File Allocation, Device Capacity Selection, and CPU Speed Selection

This paper considers a computer configuration design problem. The computer is modeled as a closed gueueing network. The average response time to an interactive user request is to be minimized. The decision variables are CPU speed, capacities of I/O devices and optimal file allocation across these devices. A rich class of nonlinear cost functions is considered. Numerical examples demonstrate the model's application, including sensitivity analyses. The last section relates the model to similar design models and discusses their usefulness and limitations.

Duke Scholars

Author Kishor S. Trivedi Electrical and Computer Engineering