Towards optimisation of the number of threads in the integration platform engines using simulation models based on queueing theory

The use of applications is important to support the business processes of companies. However, most of these applications are not designed to function collaboratively. An integration solution orchestrates a group of applications, allowing data and functionality reuse. The performance of an integration solution depends on the optimum configuration of the number of threads in the runtime engine provided by the integration platforms. It is common that this configuration relies on the empirical knowledge of the software engineers, and it has a direct impact on the performance of integration solutions. The optimum number of threads may be found by means of simulation models. This article presents a methodology and a tool to assist with the generation of simulation models based on queuing theory, in order to find the optimum number of threads to execute an integration solution focusing on performance improvement. We introduce a case of study to demonstrate and experiments to evaluate our proposal.