Stochastic Analysis Of Computer Storage

Approach your problems from the right end It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is and begin with the answers. Then one day, that they can't see the problem. perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Fother 'The Hennit Clad in Crane Feathers' in R. Brown 'The point of a Pin'. van GWs The Chinese More Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non-trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging subdisciplines as "experimental mathematics", "CFD", "completely integrable systems", "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order", which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics.

This book is based on a course I have taught at Cornell University since 1965. The primary topic of this course was queueing theory, but related topics such as inventories, insurance risk, and dams were also included. As a text I used my earlier book, Queues and Inventories (John Wiley, New York, 1965). Over the years the emphasis in this course shifted from detailed analysis of probability models to the study of stochastic processes that arise from them, and the subtitle of the text, "A Study of Their Basic Stochastic Processes," became a more appropriate description of the course. My own research into the fluctuation theory for U:vy processes provided a new perspective on the topics discussed, and enabled me to reorganize the material. The lecture notes used for the course went through several versions, and the final version became this book. A detailed description of my approach will be found in the Introduction. I have not attempted to give credit to authors of individual results. Readers interested in the historical literature should consult the Selected Bibliography given at the end of the Introduction. The original work in this area is presented here with simpler proofs that make full use of the special features of the underlying stochastic processes. The same approach makes it possible to provide several new results. Thanks are due to Kathy King for her excellent typing of the manuscript.

A self-contained treatment of stochastic processes arising from models for queues, insurance risk, and dams and data communication, using their sample function properties. The approach is based on the fluctuation theory of random walks, L vy processes, and Markov-additive processes, in which Wiener-Hopf factorisation plays a central role. This second edition includes results for the virtual waiting time and queue length in single server queues, while the treatment of continuous time storage processes is thoroughly revised and simplified. With its prerequisite of a graduate-level course in probability and stochastic processes, this book can be used as a text for an advanced course on applied probability models.

This Festschrift volume, published in honor of Brian Randell on the occasion of his 75th birthday, contains a total of 37 refereed contributions. Two biographical papers are followed by the six invited papers that were presented at the conference 'Dependable and Historic Computing: The Randell Tales', held during April 7-8, 2011 at Newcastle University, UK. The remaining contributions are authored by former scientific colleagues of Brian Randell. The papers focus on the core of Brian Randell’s work: the development of computing science and the study of its history. Moreover, his wider interests are reflected and so the collection comprises papers on software engineering, storage fragmentation, computer architecture, programming languages and dependability. There is even a paper that echoes Randell’s love of maps. After an early career with English Electric and then with IBM in New York and California, Brian Randell joined Newcastle University. His main research has been on dependable computing in all its forms, especially reliability, safety and security aspects, and he has led several major European collaborative projects.