OVERVIEW

To understand QoS in packet networks, it is important to understand not only the mechanism of providing QoS but also the performance behavior that is produced by the QoS mechanism. This chapter reviews some of the basic mathematics that is needed in the analysis of QoS performance in packet networks. The following topics are reviewed in this chapter:

• probability

• random variables

• stochastic processes

• queuing theory

From the author's experience of teaching, students generally considered the mathematical concepts and disciplines such as probability theory, random variables and stochastic processes to be too abstract and hard to apply to real problems. ^{1 3} One of the purposes of this chapter is to explain the abstract concepts in layman's terms as much as possible so that they can be applied to real problems such as QoS.