Distributed Computing Group


Discrete Event Systems (WS 2004/05)

Over the past few decades the rapid evolution of computing, communication, and information technologies has brought about the proliferation of new dynamic systems. A significant part of activity in these systems is governed by operational rules designed by humans. The dynamics of these systems are characterized by asynchronous occurrences of discrete events, some controlled (e.g. hitting a keyboard key, sending a message), some not (e.g. spontaneous failure, packet loss).

The mathematical arsenal centered around differential equations that has been employed in systems engineering to model and study processes governed by the laws of nature is often inadequate or inappropriate for discrete event systems. The challenge is to develop new modeling frameworks, analysis techniques, design tools, testing methods, and optimization processes for this new generation of systems.

In this lecture we give an introduction to discrete event systems. We start out the course by studying popular models of discrete event systems, such as automata and Petri nets. In the second part of the course we analyze discrete event systems. We first examine discrete event systems from an average-case perspective: we model discrete events as stochastic processes, and then apply Markov chains and queuing theory for an understanding of the typical behavior of a system. In the last part of the course we analyze discrete event systems from a worst-case perspective using the theory of online algorithms and adversarial queuing.

Course language: German

Lecture by Roger Wattenhofer, Thursday 13.15-15.00 @ ETA F5.

Exercises by Thomas Moscibroda and Stefan Schmid, Thursday 15.15-17.00 @ ETA F5.

Detailed Information on Exam: Here

Question Hour: Thursday, February 17, 1-3pm, ETZ F 76.1

Lecture material


Title PDF 1:1 PDF 4:1 References

Chapter 0
Introduction
2004/10/21
Download Download [cassandras]

Chapter 1
Automata and Languages
2004/10/21
Download Download [sipser]
[exorciser]

Chapter 2
Smarter Automata
2004/11/18
Download Download [sipser]
[exorciser]

Chapter 3
Specification Models
2004/11/25
Download Download [cassandras]

Chapter 4
Stochastic Discrete Event Systems
2004/12/09
Download Download
[bertsekas]
[schickinger]

Chapter 5
Worst-Case Event Systems
2005/01/20
Download [borodin]
[fiat]
[hochbaum]

Chapter 6
Verification of Finite State Automata
2005/01/27
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Chapter 7
Network Calculus
2005/02/03
Download Download [boudec]

References

[bertsekas] Data Networks
Dimitri Bersekas, Robert Gallager
Prentice Hall, 1991, ISBN: 0132009161
[borodin] Online Computation and Competitive Analysis
Allan Borodin, Ran El-Yaniv.
Cambridge University Press, 1998
[boudec] Network Calculus
J.-Y. Le Boudec, P. Thiran
Springer, 2001
[cassandras] Introduction to Discrete Event Systems
Christos Cassandras, Stéphane Lafortune.
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999, ISBN 0-7923-8609-4
[exorciser] Exorciser Software
EducETH
Download
[fiat] Online Algorithms: The State of the Art
A. Fiat and G. Woeginger
[hochbaum] Approximation Algorithms for NP-hard Problems (Chapter 13 by S. Irani, A. Karlin)
D. Hochbaum
[schickinger] Diskrete Strukturen (Band 2: Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie und Statistik)
T. Schickinger, A. Steger
Springer, Berlin, 2001
[sipser] Introduction to the Theory of Computation
Michael Sipser.
PWS Publishing Company, 1996, ISBN 053494728X