Jiang and Liu state the following as the main goal of the book:

To summarize results for stochastic service guarantee analysis using the theory of stochastic network calculus. Since many networks--such as wireless networks--provide only stochastic service guarantees and many applications--such as multimedia applications--perform well with stochastic service guarantees, the results in this book will be useful for analysis and provision of service guarantees in such network scenarios.

The authors achieve their promised goal.

The structure of the book is as follows: chapter 1 provides the basic properties for performance analysis of computer networks. Chapter 2 discusses fundamental results of deterministic network calculus. Chapters 3 to 9 discuss stochastic network calculus by taking the readers on a nice walking tour from stochastic traffic models to a case study--“generalized processor sharing systems with long-range dependent traffic inputs”--via stochastic server models for stochastic network calculus, the basic properties of stochastic network calculus for different combinations of traffic and server models, stochastic service guarantees for different scheduling disciplines, and an application of stochastic network calculus to a traffic conformance study. The mathematical analyses are carried out rigorously but precisely.

The book summarizes its content in the appendix, discusses open problems in the area of stochastic network calculus, and closes with a good collection of references.

There are some negative aspects of the book: most of the exercise problems are mostly theoretical and the authors could have provided examples and exercises from computer and communication networks--this would have brought a good mix of both bottom-up and top-down analyses to the book, and would also have made the book more successful as a main text for an advanced-level course for undergraduate or graduate students. There are a few typographical errors: for instance, “Markov” is printed as “markov.”

Leaving aside the negative aspects, the first six chapters of the book can be used for a course on performance analysis of computer communication networks for advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students. The book will certainly be a good reference for researchers in this field.