A GSMP formalism for discrete event systems

A precise mathematical framework for the study of discrete event systems is described. The idea is to define a particular type of stochastic process, called a generalized semi-Markov process (GSMP), which captures the essential dynamical structure of a discrete event system. An attempt is also made to give the flavor of the qualitative theory and numerical algorithms that can be obtained as a result of viewing discrete event systems as GSMPs. Likelihood ratio concepts for importance sampling are briefly described.>