Performance Analysis of Complex Networks and Systems

This rigorous, self-contained book describes mathematical and, in particular, stochastic and graph theoretic methods to assess the performance of complex networks and systems. It comprises three parts: the first is a review of probability theory; Part II covers the classical theory of stochastic processes (Poisson, Markov and queueing theory), which are considered to be the basic building blocks for performance evaluation studies; Part III focuses on the rapidly expanding new field of network science. This part deals with the recently obtained insight that many very different large complex networks – such as the Internet, World Wide Web, metabolic and human brain networks, utility infrastructures, social networks – evolve and behave according to general common scaling laws. This understanding is useful when assessing the end-to-end quality of Internet services and when designing robust and secure networks. Containing problems and solved solutions, the book is ideal for graduate students taking courses in performance analysis.

Piet Van Mieghem is a Professor at the Delft University of Technology with a chair in telecommunication networks, and chairman of the Network Architectures and Services (NAS) section. His main research interests lie in the modeling and analysis of complex networks (such as biological, brain, social, infrastructural, and so on) and in new Internet-like architectures and algorithms for future communications networks.