Large deviations for performance analysis

by Adam Shwartz

This book consists of two synergistic parts. The first half develops the theory of large deviations from the beginning (i.i.d. random variables) through recent results on the theory for processes with boundaries, keeping to a very narrow path: continuous-time, discrete-state processes. By developing only what is needed for the applications, the theory is kept to a manageable level, both in terms of length and in terms of difficulty. Within its scope, the treatment is detailed, comprehensive, and self-contained. As the book shows, there are sufficiently many interesting applications of jump Markov processes to warrant a special treatment. The second half is a collection of applications developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories. The applications cover large areas of the theory of communication networks: circuit-switched transmission, packet transmission, multiple access channels, and the M/M/1 queue. Aspects of parallel computation are covered as well: basics of job allocation, rollback-based