Stochastic Discrete Event Systems

Stochastic discrete-event systems (SDES) capture the randomness in choices due to activity delays and the probabilities of decisions. This book delivers a comprehensive overview on modeling with a quantitative evaluation of SDES. It presents an abstract model class for SDES as a pivotal unifying result and details important model classes. The book also includes nontrivial examples to explain real-world applications of SDES.

This unique textbook comprehensively introduces the field of discrete event systems, offering a breadth of coverage that makes the material accessible to readers of varied backgrounds. The book emphasizes a unified modeling framework that transcends specific application areas, linking the following topics in a coherent manner: language and automata theory, supervisory control, Petri net theory, Markov chains and queueing theory, discrete-event simulation, and concurrent estimation techniques. Topics and features: detailed treatment of automata and language theory in the context of discrete event systems, including application to state estimation and diagnosis comprehensive coverage of centralized and decentralized supervisory control of partially-observed systems timed models, including timed automata and hybrid automata stochastic models for discrete event systems and controlled Markov chains discrete event simulation an introduction to stochastic hybrid systems sensitivity analysis and optimization of discrete event and hybrid systems new in the third edition: opacity properties, enhanced coverage of supervisory control, overview of latest software tools This proven textbook is essential to advanced-level students and researchers in a variety of disciplines where the study of discrete event systems is relevant: control, communications, computer engineering, computer science, manufacturing engineering, transportation networks, operations research, and industrial engineering. ​Christos G. Cassandras is Distinguished Professor of Engineering, Professor of Systems Engineering, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. Stéphane Lafortune is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

A unified and rigorous treatment of the associated stochastic optimization problems is provided and recent advances in perturbation theory encompassed. Throughout the book emphasis is upon concepts rather than mathematical completeness with the advantage that the reader only requires a basic knowledge of probability, statistics and optimization.

Discrete event systems (DES) have become pervasive in our daily lives. Examples include (but are not restricted to) manufacturing and supply chains, transportation, healthcare, call centers, and financial engineering. However, due to their complexities that often involve millions or even billions of events with many variables and constraints, modeling these stochastic simulations has long been a “hard nut to crack”. The advance in available computer technology, especially of cluster and cloud computing, has paved the way for the realization of a number of stochastic simulation optimization for complex discrete event systems. This book will introduce two important techniques initially proposed and developed by Professor Y C Ho and his team; namely perturbation analysis and ordinal optimization for stochastic simulation optimization, and present the state-of-the-art technology, and their future research directions. Contents:Part I: Perturbation Analysis:The IPA Calculus for Hybrid SystemsSmoothed Perturbation Analysis: A Retrospective and Prospective LookPerturbation Analysis and Variance Reduction in Monte Carlo SimulationAdjoints and AveragingInfinitesimal Perturbation Analysis and Optimization AlgorithmsSimulation-based Optimization of Failure-prone Continuous Flow LinesPerturbation Analysis, Dynamic Programming, and BeyondPart II: Ordinal Optimization:Fundamentals of Ordinal OptimizationOptimal Computing Budget Allocation FrameworkNested PartitionsApplications of Ordinal Optimization Readership: Professionals in industrial and systems engineering, graduate reference for probability & statistics, stochastic analysis and general computer science, and research. Keywords:Simulation;Optimization;Stochastic Systems;Discrete-Even Systems;Perturbation Analysis;Ordinal Optimization

Discrete Event Systems: Analysis and Control is the proceedings of WODES2000 (the 5th Workshop on Discrete Event Systems, held in Ghent, Belgium, on August 21-23, 2000). This book provides a survey of the current state of the art in the field of modeling, analysis and control synthesis of discrete event systems, lecture notes for a mini course on sensitivity analysis for performance evaluation of timed discrete event systems, and 48 carefully selected papers covering all areas of discrete event theory and the most important applications domains. Topics include automata theory and supervisory control (12); Petri net based models for discrete event systems, and their control synthesis (11); (max,+) and timed automata models (9); applications papers related to scheduling, failure detection, and implementation of supervisory controllers (7); formal description of PLCs (6); and finally, stochastic models of discrete event systems (3).

Opening new directions in research in both discrete event dynamic systems as well as in stochastic control, this volume focuses on a wide class of control and of optimization problems over sequences of integer numbers. This is a counterpart of convex optimization in the setting of discrete optimization. The theory developed is applied to the control of stochastic discrete-event dynamic systems. Some applications are admission, routing, service allocation and vacation control in queuing networks. Pure and applied mathematicians will enjoy reading the book since it brings together many disciplines in mathematics: combinatorics, stochastic processes, stochastic control and optimization, discrete event dynamic systems, algebra.