Modelling Communication Networks, Present and Future
Available from JSTOR.
Modern communication networks are able to respond to randomly
fluctuating demands and failures by allowing buffers to fill, by
rerouting traffic and by reallocating resources. They are able to do
this so well that, in many respects, large-scale networks appear as
coherent, almost intelligent, organisms.
The design and control of such networks present challenges of a
mathematical, engineering and economic nature. In this lecture we
describe some of the models that have proved useful in the analysis of
stability, statistical sharing and pricing, in systems ranging from
the telephone networks of today to the information superhighways of
tomorrow.
A preprint of the
paper. The paper was the basis for the Royal Society's Clifford Paterson
Lecture, 1995, delivered in London and Edinburgh.
Further
reading,
including copies of the slides used for the lecture.
Citations, from Google Scholar.