Stochastic Simulation Optimization For Discrete Event Systems

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

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.

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.

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.

Simulation is a controlled statistical sampling technique that can be used to study complex stochastic systems when analytic and/or numerical techniques do not suffice. The focus of this book is on simulations of discrete-event stochastic systems; namely, simulations in which stochastic state transitions occur only at an increasing sequence of random times. The discussion emphasizes simulations on a finite or countably infinite state space. * Develops probabilistic methods for simulation of discrete-event stochastic systems * Emphasizes stochastic modeling and estimation procedures based on limit theorems for regenerative stochastic processes * Includes engineering applications of discrete-even simulation to computer, communication, manufacturing, and transportation systems * Focuses on simulations with an underlying stochastic process that can specified as a generalized semi-Markov process * Unique approach to simulation, with heavy emphasis on stochastic modeling * Includes engineering applications for computer, communication, manufacturing, and transportation systems