Are there any books for learning Computer simulation.

Question

I have programming experience in perl/java/c# and basic c.

I am good at elementary mathematics.

But have no idea where to get started to get going with simulation. Can anyone let me know what are the good books that I should be reading??

Thanks, Dhawal.

Answer 1

A good overall book Computer Simulation in Management Science This one if you want something near a cookbook Practical Guide

Answer 2

Have a look at this online course - pretty nice and well explained introduction to basic discrete-event simulation methods, lots of pictures to help you grasp the idea, step-by-step presentation of algorithms.

Answer 3

I would suggest you start with one of the followings, depending on your preferences:

• Averill Law (or the older editions by Law & Kelton): Simulation Modeling and Analysis. A very good introduction, also introduces many related fields that are relevant to conduct simulation studies (random numbers, variance reduction, output analysis, optimization, etc.).

• Richard Fujimoto: Parallel and Distributed Simulation Systems. As the title says, this one focuses on parallel and distributed simulations and the algorithms to implement those, not so much the modeling part. Still, if you're interested in algorithms this one will give you pretty much to think about.

• François Cellier: Continuous System Simulation. If you're not so much interested in discrete-event situation but rather in continuous simulation, this book gives a very comprehensive overview on the relevant algorithms, though it is a bit mathematical (but well explained IMO!). There's also a companion book on continuous system modeling.

• Bernard Zeigler: Theory of Modeling and Simulation. If you're theoretically inclined, you might want to have a look at this one, which contains a very good introduction to the different kinds of views you can take on a system/model (continuous vs. discrete etc.), from a systems-theory perspective.