Modeling and Analysis of Stochastic Systems (Chapman & Hall/CRC Texts in Statistical Science) [Hardcover]

Vidyadhar G. Kulkarni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0412049910 | ISBN-13: 978-0412049910 | Edition: 1

This practical and accessible text enables readers from engineering, business, operations research, public policy and computer science to analyze stochastic systems. Emphasizing the modeling of real-life situations with stochastic elements and analyzing the resulting stochastic model, it presents the major cases of useful stochastic processes-discrete and continuous time Markov chains, renewal processes, regenerative processes, and Markov regenerative processes.The author provides reader-friendly yet rigorous coverage. He follows a set pattern of development for each class of stochastic processes and introduces Markov chains before renewal processes, so that readers can begin modeling systems early. He demonstrates both numerical and analytical solution methods in detail and dedicates a separate chapter to queueing applications.Modeling and Analysis of Stochastic Systems includes numerous worked examples and exercises, conveniently categorized as modeling, computational, or conceptual and making difficult concepts easy to grasp. Taking a practical approach to working with stochastic models, this book helps readers to model and analyze the increasingly complex and interdependent systems made possible by recent advances.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a beautiful introductory textbook on stochastic processes...Plenty of applications, examples, and exercises bring the reader to the intuitive understanding of the subject.
-Zentralblatt für Mathematik

Well-chosen examples and interesting exercises make this text a good choice for a first course in stochastic processes for a broad class of students.
- Journal of the American Statistical Association

About the Author

Vidyadhar G. Kulkarni is a Norman Johnson Professor in the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 634 pages
• Publisher: Chapman and Hall/CRC; 1 edition (May 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0412049910
• ISBN-13: 978-0412049910
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,566,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars precise, modern treatment of stochastic analysis, July 4, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Modeling and Analysis of Stochastic Systems (Chapman & Hall/CRC Texts in Statistical Science) (Hardcover)

The book arises from lectures at UNC-CH in a two-semester course on stochastic models. The author has exceptional precision and
organization in the classroom, and this comes through in the book. Great book for teaching
from, as well as learning from.

This book also takes a step which more venerable texts, such as the Trivedi book or the Ross series
could not -- it has computational excercises suitable for math packages like Mathematica. Thus,
the student can be introduced to scientific computer literacy as well as stochastic processes.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in teaching today's student, or for preparing themselves
for challenges in Operations Research. The book would make an above-average reference as well.

Mike Bailey
Associate Professor, Naval Postgraduate School

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An average book, April 28, 2002

By 

AR PSU "aratpennstate" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modeling and Analysis of Stochastic Systems (Chapman & Hall/CRC Texts in Statistical Science) (Hardcover)

I used this book in a graduate course on Stochastic processes. The book would rate as average or just above that as I found it to be insufficient for a start in the subject unless you were in a classroom course. It does assume some background in probabilty. Also, the explanations, while complete, are not as easy to understand as the Roos book. I also found that the examples were extremely easy as compared to the excersice problems. THis makes it tougher to 'extrapolate' and understand. It has one nice feature though- solutions to half the problems are there at the end of the book making it better for students while giving faculty leeway too. The excercises are quite comprehensive too. I'd say this is an excellent book for someone with some prior knowlede of Stochastic Processes. For a beginner, this may not be the best start.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strictly fair text, September 25, 2005

By 

C. Price "math graduate student" (College Park, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modeling and Analysis of Stochastic Systems (Chapman & Hall/CRC Texts in Statistical Science) (Hardcover)

This text book isn't great but it isn't awful either. There are numerous typos and mistakes in the book. The author has a list of errata on his webpage that is 7 pages long and that is only a partial list. The explaination in the book is okay and the exercises are pretty good. If you have a choice I recommend using the text by Ross for learning the material or Karlin and Taylor for reference.