NCJ Number
17461
Date Published
1970
Length
39 pages
Annotation
DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION OF A COMPUTER PROGRAM, CODED IN GENERAL PURPOSE SIMULATION SYSTEM, TO SIMULATE THE OPERATION OF THE CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT'S MOTOR VEHICLE INQUIRY SYSTEM.
Abstract
FOUR TYPES OF INQUIRIES ARE HANDLED: VEHICLE (OR LICENSE) CHECKS, AND ADDITIONS, DELETIONS, AND MODIFICATIONS TO STORED INFORMATION. COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS, FOUR COMPUTERS, AND ELEVEN TERMINALS ARE EXPLICITLY REPRESENTED IN THE SIMULATOR; OTHER SYSTEM EQUIPMENT AND TYPES OF INQUIRIES ARE IMPLICITLY REPRESENTED. FOUR EXPERIMENTS WITH THE SIMULATOR ARE REPORTED. THESE INVOLVE CHANGES IN TERMINAL EQUIPMENT, THE MESSAGE ASSEMBLY PROCEDURE, THE PRIORITY SYSTEM, AND SYSTEM LOADING. BASED ON THE EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED, IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT THE MOTOR VEHICLE INQUIRY SYSTEM WAS CAPABLE OF HANDLING AN INCREASED VOLUME OF INQUIRY TRAFFIC WITHOUT DEVELOPING UNACCEPTABLE DELAY TIMES, IN ADDITION, IT WAS FOUND THAT RESPONSE TIME COULD BEST BE SHORTENED BY REPLACING TELETYPE TERMINALS AT THE DISTRICT STATIONS WITH 1050 TERMINALS. IN THE EVENT OF ACTUAL INCREASED LOADING OF THE SYSTEM, THERE WOULD BE A SLIGHT DECREASE IN SERVICE TIME FOR VEHICLE CHECKS, BUT A DELAY OF SEVERAL SECONDS IN THE ARRIVAL OF INQUIRY RESPONSES. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED) SAINT LOUIS