Reliability analysis of complex communication systems (Q1585961)

The author analyzes the asymptotic behaviour of a heterogeneous finite-source communication system with a single processor where each source and the processor operate in independent random environments, by employing his earlier technique [Perform. Eva. 17, No. 1, 1-11 (1993; Zbl 0796.68032)]. Assuming that the arrival rates of the messages are many times greater than their service rates, the author shows that the time to the first system failure converges in distribution, under appropriate norming, to an exponentially distributed random variable. Simple examples illustrate the effectiveness of the method.