Numerical performance of the distributed vector finite-element time-domain algorithm

This paper deals with a distributed time-domain modeling of electromagnetic phenomena with the finite-element method. The model is approximated by edge elements. The constitutive equations and method of parallelization of the algorithm are presented. The properties Of the distributed finite-element time-domain algorithm are discussed. Some typical performance metrics are studied for the parallel versions of the software. The presented algorithm is executed on a heterogeneous and a homogeneous clusters of workstations. Two different distributed memory environments (MPI and PVM) are used to evaluate the efficiency of the algorithm. Index Terms--Distributed computing, edge elements, finite-element time-domain (FETD) algorithm, high-frequency electromagnetic field.