Introduction to stochastic processes and queueing theory

This textbook is born to introduce engineering students to topics of applied mathematics relevant in different fields of engineering, presenting in a unified way a rigorous treatment – but without heavy formalisms – of complex topics such as stochastic processes and queueing theory. The goal is to provide them with analytical tools to deal with problems that are encountered not infrequently in practice, but that frequently see the engineer with no or little arms to tackle. A word is worth spending on the style of the book, including its typographical, which is deliberately not solemn, almost “classnotes”, seeking to bring out immediately what is most important. We tried to facilitate visually the extraction of key issues from the amount of material, and at the same time limited the use of long phrases and many words, encouraging the student to climb from these synthetic “notes” to a complete in-depth understanding. Whether the attempt was successful we leave it to the student. Giancarlo Prati is Professor of Telecommunication Engineering at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa and Director of the Institute of Communication, Information, and Perception Technologies. His research activity is focused on optical and RF communications and digital signal processing. Laura Prati is Research Fellow of Applied Mathematics at the University of Florence, Department of Information Engineering. Her research activity concerns the game theory applied to communication systems and the mathematical analysis of nonlinear effects.