Reducing complexity in an agent based reaction model-Benefits and limitations of simplifications in relation to run time and system level output

Authored by Mike Holcombe, David M Rhodes, Eva E Qwarnstrom

Date Published: 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2016.06.002

Sponsors: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Platforms: FLAME

Model Documentation: Other Narrative

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Agent based modelling is a methodology for simulating a variety of systems across a broad spectrum of fields. However, due to the complexity of the systems it is often impossible or impractical to model them at a one to one scale. In this paper we use a simple reaction rate model implemented using the FLAME framework to test the impact of common methods for reducing model complexity such as reducing scale, increasing iteration duration and reducing message overheads. We demonstrate that such approaches can have significant impact on simulation runtime albeit with increasing risk of aberrant system behaviour and errors, as the complexity of the model is reduced. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

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