The newest version of Arena is 5.0 . This book teaches based on the version 3.0.

This book is a good introduction to the field of discrete event simulation and the simulation language Arena in special. The first chapter of the book about the history of simulation the generic use of it and some future use. The second chapter handles basic concepts of simulation as content of a simulation model, events and randomness. In the rest of the book the discrete event simulation language Arena is explained as a sort of tutorial, using easy to understand practical examples. Although I reckon myself as a simulation expert I still use this book regular, thanks to the appendixes in which technical stuff as probability, statistics and distributions is explained, focused on the use in Arena, but also applicable for other simulation languages.

Arena is a powerful, user-friendly tool that is capable of handling a wide range of problems in business. I've found it particularly applicable to problems in telecommunications. Queueing theory is nice, but it seldom applies to many of our real-world problems. Simulations do, and Arena is one of the best. The text, examples, and exercises provide an interesting and information way to jump start you to productive simulations. Don't come here for sound simulation theory, though. This is for the practical user, but not for the student of operations research.

All I have to say is, if you have not read - Just How Blessed I Am, you are truly missing a TREAT!. From the first page until the last, I found myself totally immensed in the hillarious happenings surrounding the lead character - Helen and her family. Deborah Randall has reflected in her writing an extraordinary way of expressing through the fictional character - Helen, the experiences as well as feelings that each of us have - at one time or another - felt. All I can do is say - Thank You Deborah - for reminding me that I am TRULY BLESSED!

This book doesn't provide any good examples.
The description of those models are BAD.
Author suppose that every readers are already familiar with
all the functions of arena?

Author doesn't explain many modeling trickys clearly.

To be frankly, I am disappointed.

What you get for your money: a book on version 5 of Arena and a CD with the student version of the software.
The book is a good introduction to the topic of discrete event system simulation, although if this is your only interest you'll get better value buying A. Law's book or Jerry Banks's book (also available at Amazon).
After introducing the basic concepts in simulation, the book turns into a tutorial in the use of Arena. This is basically a good thing, but you'll find that there are so stringent limitations in the software provided, that some of the examples cannot be completed. This did not happen wiht version 3 (1998 edition). So what is the purpose?
Selling THIS book is a way of whetting your appetite for buying the software. If you are looking for information on simulation you can buy Law's book or Jerry Banks's book, if you are looking for software go directly to the manufacturer of Arena (Rockwell software) or other software manufacturers and find out in their web site. Version 3 was also limited but you could follow the examples with the software provided. Save your money on this book -- don't buy it.

I used this book in 2 grad courses on simulation (one with Dr. Kelton himself!).

This is an outstanding book on the basics of the Arena simulation s/w. The explanations are detailed with screen-shots, etc. to clarify topics. The examples, specially the introductory ones, are excellent illustrations of simulation concepts in the Arena envioronment. The student version of the Arena s/w {version 5} is provided and more than sufficient for learning purposes. Also, the CD includes most of the example problems from the text & can be refered to when in trouble. Arena also has SMART files that are more complex examples illustrating various capabilities and these are very good for reference. The Arena online help is also quite comprehensive too. A big advantage of this book is explanations on building animations of the simulation model. Other books don't offer as good and simple coverage as this one does.

Some of the advanced material and concepts, however, are not explained in as much detail as the earlier chapters. The authors are not to be blamed entirely though; many of these models/examples are fairly elaborate and complete enumeration of details is difficult. However, I would have liked more comprehensive explanations on some features of Arena like: Transporters (this book covers only one type of transporter available in Arena; transporters are accurately explained in an older and out of print book); using VBA for automation of some features {this is very useful to make the simulation read i/p from a spreadsheet or text file}- the authors assume this will be picked up by users themselves, etc. Arena uses the SIMAN language as its engine for simulation. Siman has many, many blocks with more advanced options and features that are not explained here & this is the biggest drawback of the book. For modeling complex systems, I often use these lower level blocks and explanations of these blocks and features are comprehensive in "Introduction to Simulation Using SIMAN" by Pegden et al. In fact, with pretty good familiarity of the Arena envioronment, I use this Siman book a lot more nowdays. Only in animation building is the Siman book insufficient.

It is very important to note that this book is a refernce on simulation using Arena, NOT simulation concepts as a whole (these are covered briefly too); for simulation concepts and overviews, I recommend "Simulation Modeling and Analysis" by Law & Kelton as well as "Discrete Event System Simulation" by Banks, et al.

Let me end with this note: Dr. Kelton used material from this book in his introduction to Arena, so it'll be like learing in class itself. I would consider the Pegden book as a replacement or supplement to this one though.