Queueing Models for Computer Communications System Analysis

Modeling and performance prediction are becoming increasingly important issues in the design and operation of computer communications systems. Complexities in their configuration and sophistications in resource sharing found in today's computer communications demand our intensive effort to enhance the modeling capability. The present paper is intended to review the state of affairs of analytic methods, queueing analysis techniques in particular, which are essential to modeling of computer communication systems. First we review basic properties of exponential queueing systems, and then give an overview of recent progress made in the areas of queueing network models and discrete-time queueing systems. A unified treatment of buffer storage overflow problems will be discussed as an application example, in which we call attention to the analogy between buffer behavior and waiting time in the <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">GI/G/1</tex> queue. Another application deals with the analysis of various multiplexing techniques and network configuration. An extensive reference list of the subject fields is also provided.