Assignment #2 for Introduction to Simulation (Spring 1999)

Situation:

You are given a set of measurements for hits on a Web server. The measurements are for the number of disk accesses per hit. The measurements are as follows:

# of disk accesses  |  # of hits
--------------------+--------------
          0         |    1289
          1         |   10123
          2         |   45126
          3         |   12133
          4         |    5771
          5         |     344
          6         |     102

Requirement:

Based on an empirical distribution for the above measurements do the following:

Manually plot the CDF and pdf of the distribution.
Manually compute the mean and variance of the distribution.
Write a program that generates simulated Web accesses and use this program to generate a file of 10,000 simulated accesses (i.e., a file of 10,000 disk access counts for simulated hits).
Determine the mean and variance of the values (the simulated hits) in the generated file. Explain any differences between the results from requirement (4) and (2).

Guidelines:

Here as3_99_2.c, is a skeleton of the program you are to complete for part (3) of the requirements. For part (4) you can use a spreadsheet or some of the programs on my tools page might be helpful. Manual crunching of 10,000 values is an awfully tedious method. You are to submit parts (1) and (2) on a sheet of paper. For part (3) submit a program listing and a copy of your program (source and executable) and the generated hits file on a diskette. The results for part (4) should be submitted on a sheet of paper.

Last updated by Ken Christensen on JANUARY 13, 1999