Syllabus

Syllabus & (tentative) Schedule

THE INFORMATION ON THIS WIKI PAGE MAY BE UPDATED THROUGHOUT SEMESTER. PLEASE CHECK IT REGULARLY

Schedule at-a-glance

Class times and location: Monday & Wednesday, 4:00pm-5:20pm in TBD.

Legend: date (quizzes & exams) and due date (homeworks)

Hmwk	Quizz	Exam	No class

	Mo.	We.	Mo.	We.	Mo.	We.	Mo.	We.	Mo.	We.
August	24	26	31
September		2	7	9	14	16	21	23	28	30
October	5	7	12	14	19	21	26	28
November	2	4	9	11	16	18	23	25	30
December		2					11

EXAM 1: Monday October 19, 2020, in class
EXAM 2: Tuesday December 11, 2020, 6:00-7:20pm in TBD

Detailed Schedule & Syllabus

NOTE: This schedule in TENTATIVE, and LIKELY to change as certain topics may end-up being harder or easier than anticipated. Changes to the schedule will be reflected as quickly as possible on this page.

August

Date	Scope	Material & Reading Assignments (To Be Read Ahead of Class)	Notes & slides (If any)	Preview Problems	Quizzes & Homeworks
8/24	Course overview, logistics, (motivating) examples and terminology	Chapters 1 & 2	Notes 0 Intro & Nomenclature	Preview Problems 1
8/26	A brief review of probability topics, both basic and slightly more advanced, which are needed in the course	Chapters 3 & 5	Probability Refresher and Practice Problems	Preview Problems 2
8/31	An introduction of general principles such as Little's Law and various other "laws" and bounds for closed system, which hold with little or no assumptions	Chapters 6 & 7	Little & Operational Laws	Preview Problems 3

September

Date	Scope	Material & Reading Assignments (To Be Read Ahead of Class)	Notes & slides (If any)	Preview Problems	Quizzes & Homeworks
9/2	An introduction of general principles such as Little's Law and various other "laws" and bounds for closed system, which hold with little or no assumptions	Chapters 6 & 7	Little & Operational Laws
9/7	LABOR DAY	NO CLASS
9/9	A first foray into Markov chain focused on finite Discrete Time Markov Chains (DTMCs) and their applications to simple problems.	Chapter 8 (Sections 8.1 to 8.7)	Discrete Time Markov Chains and "Web caching as a DTMC"	Preview Problems 5]	Quiz 1
9/14	Infinite DTMCs and some simple applications	Chapter 8 (Sections 8.8 to 8.10)	Discrete Time Markov Chains	Preview Problems 6	HWK #1
9/16	Ergodicity, balance equations, and time reversibility for DTMCs	Chapter 9	Ergodicity and more	Preview Problems 7
9/21	Review of z-transforms and applications to DTMCs	Chapter 25 (the parts about z-transforms) & Chapter 10 (mostly Section 10.3, though the others are of independent interest)	z-transforms and DTMC Examples and z-transform solution for Geom/Geom/1 queue	Preview Problems 8
9/23	Exponential distribution & Poisson process	Chapter 11	Exponential & Poisson Distributions (except the material on PASTA)	[Preview Problems 9
9/28	Introduction to continuous time Markov chains (CTMC)	Chapter 12	Continuous Time Markov Chains	Preview Problems 10	HWK #2
9/30	M/M/1 queue & PASTA theorem	Chapter 13	Continuous Time Markov Chains plus Exponential & Poisson Distributions (for PASTA), and and some related problems]	Preview Problems 11

October

Date	Scope	Material & Reading Assignments (To Be Read Ahead of Class)	Notes & slides (If any)	Preview Problems	Quizzes & Homeworks
10/5	M/M/k/k (Erlang-B formula) and M/M/k queueing systems	Chapter 14	Slides 9	Preview Problems 12	Quiz 2
10/7	Applications to system provisioning	Chapter 15 + Sections 8.11 & 8.12 of Zukerman's book (Hayward approximation and Equivalent Random Theory)	Slides 10	Preview Problems 13
10/12	FALL BREAK	NO CLASS
10/14	Review session	Check the Exams & quizzes page for past exams	It is your responsibility to come-up with questions to ask		HWK #3
10/19	IN CLASS EXAM 1	Exam 1 covers everything from the first lecture up to this point
10/21	Revisiting time reversibility and applications to network of queues	Chapter 16	Slides 11	Preview Problems 14
10/26	Jackson networks (of queues) and product form distribution	Chapter 17	Slides 11	Preview problems 15
10/28	Classed Jackson networks	Chapter 18	Slides 11	Preview Problems 16

November

Date	Scope	Material & Reading Assignments (To Be Read Ahead of Class)	Notes & slides (If any)	Preview Problems	Quizzes & Homeworks
11/02	Closed Jackson networks & mean value analysis (MVA)	Chapter 19	Slides 11	Preview Problems 17	HWK #4
11/04	A quick introduction to Matrix-Analytic techniques and phase-type distributions	Chapter 21	Slides 12	Preview Problems 18
11/9	Processor sharing queues	Chapter 22	Slides 13	Preview Problems 19	Quiz 3
11/11	The M/G/1 queue and Renewal-Reward theorem	Chapter 23	Slides 14	Preview Problems 20
11/16	A brief foray into server assignment policies	Chapter 24	Slides 15	Preview Problems 21	HWK #5
11/18	Transform analysis of M/G/1 queue (and review of transforms)	Chapter 25 and Chapter 26 (Section 1)	Slides 16 and Slides 16bis	Preview Problems 22
11/23	M/G/1 queue and application to power optimization	Chapter 26 (Section 2) and Chapter 27	Slides 17	Preview Problems 23
11/25	NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING BREAK
11/30	M/G/1 queue with non-preemptive scheduling priorities	Review Section 3 of Chapter 27, Chapter 29 and Chapter 31	Slides 18	Preview Problems 24	Quiz 4

December

Date	Scope	Material & Reading Assignments (To Be Read Ahead of Class)	Notes & slides (If any)	Preview Problems	Quizzes & Homeworks
12/02	Preemptive, non-size-based scheduling policies	Chapter 30 & Section 32.2	Slides 19	Preview 26 Problems	HWK #6
12/08	Preemptive size-based scheduling policies	Chapter 32 (Sections 32.3 and onward) & Chapter 33	Slides 20]	Preview 27 problems
12/20	EXAM 2	(6:00-8:00pm in TBD)