Support for Statistical Analysis of the Configurable Port Simulation (CportS)

The primary objective of this thesis is to provide support for statistical analysis of CPortS: a transportation logistics simulation, which models the movement of military traffic through seaports and the interaction of the traffic with port infrastructure. By any standards, CPortS is a very large, data intensive simulation. It provides capabilities for analyzing many important issues such as port clearance and throughput. CPortS was classically run in single run mode. Only a single replication of the simulation was performed and conclusions were drawn from the results obtained. Users and analysts of CPortS performed multiple runs only to see the effect on the simulation for varying parameters per run. Clearly, the conclusions drawn were statistically inadequate. To ensure reliable conclusions being drawn from the model it is imperative that provisions for statistical analysis be provided to the analysts. The analyst needs to know the range of possibilities with likelihood of occurrence for a given set of parameters. The following study deals with the development of a model for multiple runs/replications of CPortS and a model for data capture, both of which are needed to provide support for statistical analysis of CPortS. The design of the models is aimed at providing flexibility for maintainability and efficiency from the standpoint of the CPortS development team and ease of use and for satisfying current and future requirements from the standpoint of the analysts.