9314253 Hajek The principal investigator (PI) will focus on performance evaluation and design of communication networks of the future with emphasis on large, high-speed networks, both optical and electronic. The main topics are 1) Spectral Response of Queues and Diffusion Approximation, 2) Continuous Traffic in Packet Switches, 3) Multirate Circuit Switches, and 4) Optical Interconnections. The approach will be to perform modeling, analysis, and design. Models will be based on current and anticipated future technology and cover a broad spectrum of networks with circuit-switched to datagram packet networks at the extremes. Analysis will consist of a mixture of exact probabilistic methods and simulation. Design will be motivated by modeling and analysis and aided by optimization tools of both combinatorial and linear types. Finally, inequalities from information theory, mathematical physics, decision theory and combinatorics will be applied to yield new performance bounds, providing a bridge between design and performance evaluation. Successful completion of the proposed research would provide new network topologies and control strategies for high performance networks, improved means to predict performance to support the offering of guaranteed service, and techniques to extrapolate accurately performance observed for small experimental networks to large-scale networks. ***
