Thirty years of "batch size effects"

  • Authors:
  • Barry L. Nelson

  • Affiliations:
  • Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

The method of non-overlapping batch means is the standard for constructing a confidence interval for the mean of a steady-state simulation output. In "Batch Size Effects in the Analysis of Simulation Output," published in Operations Research in 1982, Schmeiser recast the problem of selecting a batch size by examining the marginal benefit of attaining the largest number of batches (smallest batch size) that still yields a valid confidence interval. His formulation of the problem, and the conclusions he reached, influenced nearly all later work on batching and batching algorithms for confidence-interval estimation.