Queueing theory plays an important role in the analysis of communication networks. The focus of this book is on mathematical models applicable to networking, and on evaluating the performance of communication networks through the use of analytical techniques.

This is a concise textbook of about 200 pages. Roughly half of it is devoted to probability, Markov chains, and queueing theory. The other half is devoted to the application of these concepts in a networking context.

The book starts with a review of probability and statistics, and then builds the mathematical formulation of discrete-time and continuous-time Markov chains and queueing theory concepts. The emphasis is on the accurate mathematical derivation for later applications. There is also a chapter on stochastic queueing networks covering loss networks and Jackson networks.

The remaining chapters focus directly on networking. Chapter 4 starts with a review of a typical Internet router architecture, and then discusses traffic shaping and multiplexing of variable length packet flows. Chapter 6 presents a discussion on routing and routing with incentives; it includes Internet protocol (IP) forwarding, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), and an optimization framework for pricing. Chapter 7 compares the performance of query search in different peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, such as Gnutella, Kazaa, BitTorrent, and Kademlia. It concludes with a discussion on incentives for cooperation among peers.

The book provides valuable information on the application of analytical techniques to model communication networks. The discussions are short; however, the book has an extensive bibliography that points to papers and articles to explore further. This approach makes it more suitable to use in a classroom environment, where topics can be explored in more detail. One key hindrance is the lack of an index for cross referencing.

The text is a little difficult to use as a self-study book, but the information pertaining to performance modeling of networks and mathematics makes this book a very useful resource.