This unique textbook comprehensively introduces the field of discrete event systems, offering a breadth of coverage that makes the material accessible to readers of varied backgrounds. The book emphasizes a unified modeling framework that transcends specific application areas, linking the following topics in a coherent manner: language and automata theory, supervisory control, Petri net theory, Markov chains and queueing theory, discrete-event simulation, and concurrent estimation techniques. Topics and features: detailed treatment of automata and language theory in the context of discrete event systems, including application to state estimation and diagnosis comprehensive coverage of centralized and decentralized supervisory control of partially-observed systems timed models, including timed automata and hybrid automata stochastic models for discrete event systems and controlled Markov chains discrete event simulation an introduction to stochastic hybrid systems sensitivity analysis and optimization of discrete event and hybrid systems new in the third edition: opacity properties, enhanced coverage of supervisory control, overview of latest software tools This proven textbook is essential to advanced-level students and researchers in a variety of disciplines where the study of discrete event systems is relevant: control, communications, computer engineering, computer science, manufacturing engineering, transportation networks, operations research, and industrial engineering. ​Christos G. Cassandras is Distinguished Professor of Engineering, Professor of Systems Engineering, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. Stéphane Lafortune is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Discrete event systems (DES) have become pervasive in our daily lives. Examples include (but are not restricted to) manufacturing and supply chains, transportation, healthcare, call centers, and financial engineering. However, due to their complexities that often involve millions or even billions of events with many variables and constraints, modeling these stochastic simulations has long been a “hard nut to crack”. The advance in available computer technology, especially of cluster and cloud computing, has paved the way for the realization of a number of stochastic simulation optimization for complex discrete event systems. This book will introduce two important techniques initially proposed and developed by Professor Y C Ho and his team; namely perturbation analysis and ordinal optimization for stochastic simulation optimization, and present the state-of-the-art technology, and their future research directions.

A unified and rigorous treatment of the associated stochastic optimization problems is provided and recent advances in perturbation theory encompassed. Throughout the book emphasis is upon concepts rather than mathematical completeness with the advantage that the reader only requires a basic knowledge of probability, statistics and optimization.

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEMS, MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS AND COMMUNICATION NETWORKS is based on the proceedings of a workshop that was an integral part of the 1992-93 IMA program on "Control Theory. " The study of discrete event dynamical systems (DEDS) has become rapidly popular among researchers in systems and control, in communication networks, in manufacturing, and in distributed computing. This development has created problems for re searchers and potential "consumers" of the research. The first problem is the veritable Babel of languages, formalisms, and approaches, which makes it very difficult to determine the commonalities and distinctions among the competing schools of approaches. The second, related, problem arises from the different traditions, paradigms, values, and experience that scholars bring to their study of DEDS, depending on whether they come from control, com munication, computer science, or mathematical logic. As a result, intellectual exchange among scholars becomes compromised by unexplicated assumptions. The purpose of the Workshop was to promote exchange among scholars representing some of the major "schools" of thought in DEDS with the hope that (1) greater clarity will be achieved thereby, and (2) cross-fertilization will lead to more fruitful questions. We thank P. R. Kumar and P. P. Varaiya for organizing the workshop and editing the proceedings. We also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office, whose financial support made the workshop possible. A vner Friedman Willard Miller, Jr.

Audience: Anyone concerned with the science, techniques and ideas of how decisions are made."--BOOK JACKET.

This Handbook is a collection of chapters on key issues in the design and analysis of computer simulation experiments on models of stochastic systems. The chapters are tightly focused and written by experts in each area. For the purpose of this volume "simulation refers to the analysis of stochastic processes through the generation of sample paths (realization) of the processes. Attention focuses on design and analysis issues and the goal of this volume is to survey the concepts, principles, tools and techniques that underlie the theory and practice of stochastic simulation design and analysis. Emphasis is placed on the ideas and methods that are likely to remain an intrinsic part of the foundation of the field for the foreseeable future. The chapters provide up-to-date references for both the simulation researcher and the advanced simulation user, but they do not constitute an introductory level 'how to' guide. Computer scientists, financial analysts, industrial engineers, management scientists, operations researchers and many other professionals use stochastic simulation to design, understand and improve communications, financial, manufacturing, logistics, and service systems. A theme that runs throughout these diverse applications is the need to evaluate system performance in the face of uncertainty, including uncertainty in user load, interest rates, demand for product, availability of goods, cost of transportation and equipment failures.* Tightly focused chapters written by experts* Surveys concepts, principles, tools, and techniques that underlie the theory and practice of stochastic simulation design and analysis* Provides an up-to-date reference for both simulation researchers and advanced simulation users

Computer modeling and simulation (M&S) allows engineers to study and analyze complex systems. Discrete-event system (DES)-M&S is used in modern management, industrial engineering, computer science, and the military. As computer speeds and memory capacity increase, so DES-M&S tools become more powerful and more widely used in solving real-life problems. Based on over 20 years of evolution within a classroom environment, as well as on decades-long experience in developing simulation-based solutions for high-tech industries, Modeling and Simulation of Discrete-Event Systems is the only book on DES-M&S in which all the major DES modeling formalisms – activity-based, process-oriented, state-based, and event-based – are covered in a unified manner: A well-defined procedure for building a formal model in the form of event graph, ACD, or state graph Diverse types of modeling templates and examples that can be used as building blocks for a complex, real-life model A systematic, easy-to-follow procedure combined with sample C# codes for developing simulators in various modeling formalisms Simple tutorials as well as sample model files for using popular off-the-shelf simulators such as SIGMA®, ACE®, and Arena® Up-to-date research results as well as research issues and directions in DES-M&S Modeling and Simulation of Discrete-Event Systems is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of simulation/industrial engineering and computer science, as well as for simulation practitioners and researchers.

Research of discrete event systems is strongly motivated by applications in flex ible manufacturing, in traffic control and in concurrent and real-time software verification and design, just to mention a few important areas. Discrete event system theory is a promising and dynamically developing area of both control theory and computer science. Discrete event systems are systems with non-numerically-valued states, inputs, and outputs. The approaches to the modelling and control of these systems can be roughly divided into two groups. The first group is concerned with the automatic design of controllers from formal specifications of logical requirements. This re search owes much to the pioneering work of P.J. Ramadge and W.M. Wonham at the beginning of the eighties. The second group deals with the analysis and op timization of system throughput, waiting time, and other performance measures for discrete event systems. The present book contains selected papers presented at the Joint Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES'92) held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on Au gust 26-28, 1992 and organized by the Institute of Information Theory and Au tomation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechoslovakia, by the Automatic Control Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) , Zurich, Switzerland, and by the Department of Computing Science of the University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.