Data center modeling and simulation using OMNeT++

Abstract

Advances in cloud computing have rendered Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) eminent. In addition, SOA offers support for cloud computing solutions. Due to master worker paradigms, SOA is extensively adopted for cluster, grid and Cloud environment. The term Cloud computing is relatively new, compared to others. Cloud computing is define as; it is a pool of easily available, shared computing resources, including servers, services, storage and networks. Cloud comprises of computing servers arranged in racks and are connected with multiple tiers of switches to provide redundancy; this arrangement of equipment is termed as data centers. A single Cloud may comprise of multiple data centers connected through high speed communication links. Data centers have gained great publicity in recent years; however, the concepts of data center simulation models, communication protocols and analysis of data center traffic flow, remain relatively been less explored. It is important to understand how these systems work. Given the complexity of these systems, models and simulations are the best way to gain an insight into the workings of such systems. In this chapter, we provide a step by step tutorial for building traditional three tier data center simulation model using OMNeT++. The chapter is organized as follows: Section I presents core modeling and simulation concepts. In section II different architectures of data centers are discussed in detail. A step by step guide to modeling data center architectures in OMNeT++ is presented in Section III. Finally, Section IV concludes this chapter.