Statistical performance evaluation has assumed an increasing amount of importance as we seek to design more and more sophisticated communi- cation and information processing systems. The ability to predict a pro- posed system's performance without actually having to construct it is an extremely cost effective design tool. This book is meant to be a first year graduate level introduction to the field of statistical performance evaluation. As such, it covers queueing theory (chapters 1-4) and stochastic Petri networks (chapter 5). There is a short appendix at the end of the book which reviews basic probability theory. At Stony Brook, this material would be covered in the second half of a two course sequence (the first half is a computer networks course using a text such as Schwartz's Telecommunications Networks). Students seem to be encouraged to pursue the analytical material of this book if they first have some idea of the potential applications. I am grateful to B.L. Bodnar, J. Blake, J.S. Emer, M. Garrett, W. Hagen, Y.C. Jenq, M. Karol, J.F. Kurose, S.-Q. Li, A.C. Liu, J. McKenna, H.T. Mouftah and W.G. Nichols, I.Y. Wang, the IEEE and Digital Equip- ment Corporation for allowing previously published material to appear in this book.

Statistical performance evaluation has assumed an increasing amount of importance as we seek to design more and more sophisticated communi- cation and information processing systems. The ability to predict a pro- posed system's performance without actually having to construct it is an extremely cost effective design tool. This book is meant to be a first year graduate level introduction to the field of statistical performance evaluation. As such, it covers queueing theory (chapters 1-4) and stochastic Petri networks (chapter 5). There is a short appendix at the end of the book which reviews basic probability theory. At Stony Brook, this material would be covered in the second half of a two course sequence (the first half is a computer networks course using a text such as Schwartz's Telecommunications Networks). Students seem to be encouraged to pursue the analytical material of this book if they first have some idea of the potential applications. I am grateful to B.L. Bodnar, J. Blake, J.S. Emer, M. Garrett, W. Hagen, Y.C. Jenq, M. Karol, J.F. Kurose, S.-Q. Li, A.C. Liu, J. McKenna, H.T. Mouftah and W.G. Nichols, I.Y. Wang, the IEEE and Digital Equip- ment Corporation for allowing previously published material to appear in this book.