Replicated batch means for steady‐state simulations

This paper studies a new steady‐state simulation output analysis method called replicated batch means in which a small number of replications are conducted and the observations in these replications are grouped into batches. This paper also introduces and compares methods for selecting the initial state of each replication. More specifically, we show that confidence intervals constructed by the replicated batch means method are valid for large batch sizes and derive expressions for the expected values and variances of the steady‐state mean and variance estimators for stationary processes and large sample sizes. We then use these expressions, analytical examples, and numerical experiments to compare the replicated batch means method with the standard batch means and multiple replications methods. The numerical results, which are obtained from an AR(1) process and a small, nearly‐decomposable Markov chain, show that the multiple replications method often gives confidence intervals with poorer coverage than the standard and replicated batch means methods and that the replicated batch means method, implemented with good choices of initialization method and number of replications, provides confidence interval coverages that range from being comparable with to being noticeably better than coverages obtained by the standard batch means method. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006