doi:10.1016/j.tcs.2008.09.019 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Manuscript

Concurrent programming is indispensable. On the one hand, distributed and mobile environments naturally involve concurrency. On the other hand, there is a general trend towards multi-core processors that are capable of running multiple threads in parallel.

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Currently most distributed telecoms software is engineered using low and mid-level distributed technologies, but there is a drive to use high-level distribution. This paper reports the first systematic comparison of a high-level distributed programming language in the context of substantial commercial products. Our research strategy is to reengineer some C++/CORBA telecoms applications in Erlang, a high-level distributed language, and make comparative measurements. Investigating the potential advantages of the high-level Erlang technology shows that two significant benefits are realised. Firstly, robust configurable systems are easily developed using the high-level constructs for fault tolerance, and distribution. The Erlang code exhibits resilience: sustaining throughput at extreme loads and automatically recovering when load drops; availability: remaining available despite repeated and multiple failures; dynamic reconfigurability: with throughput scaling near-linearly

Simulation tools are essential in building large and complex systems which both include lots of different hardware components, but also to a large extent, a complex and vast amount of software. A common practice is for companies to use simulation tools for the tedious testing efforts that are needed. This is to facilitate faster tests as well as to minimize the hardware costs. Hardware might not even exist and then simulation tools are the only way forward. This report describes the implementation of a simulation tool, for analysis of ISUP signaling, as an extension to an already existing tool used to test telecommunication products. The final product was a simulation tool implemented in Erlang and C. The report describes the development of the tool and also gives an insight in telecommunication systems and the tools used for the implementation. Moreover, the report contains a study of how the language Erlang is suited for development of telecommunication