diskreetevent

Diskretevent is a term used in discrete-event simulation to denote a single, time-stamped occurrence that may affect the state of a simulated system. In many DES libraries it refers to an object, record, or message containing at least a time attribute and an event kind or type, and often an optional payload or source.

Role and operation: DES models advance by processing the next scheduled event. Events are inserted into an event queue ordered by time, and the simulator dequeues the earliest event, applies its effects, and may schedule new events in response.

Structure: A typical diskretevent includes fields such as time, kind (or type), source (origin entity), and payload. Some implementations add priority, a unique id, or references to involved entities.

Usage and considerations: Designing a diskretevent structure requires clear time unit handling, deterministic ordering when times are equal, and robust handling of state changes. Logging events, reproducibility, and support for parallel simulation can influence design choices.

Terminology and variants: Diskretevent is often used interchangeably with discrete event or Event in English-language contexts. The term can appear in German-language codebases as DiskreteEvent. It is primarily a modeling construct rather than a stand-alone algorithm.

See also: discrete-event simulation, event queue, event handler, simulation kernel.