Polling Models: Theory and Applications

摘要

This paper discusses how various polling models can be used for the analysis oftoken-based computer-communication systems. We address simple symmetric cyclic polling models for which exact solutions for the mean waiting times can be obtained in closed form, approximately solvable asymmetric polling models, as well as complex stochastic reward net-based models which can only be solved by numerical means. The intention of the paper is not to survey all the work on polling models. Instead, the aim is to show how polling models of varying complexity can be used for the performance evaluation of computer-communication systems such as the IBM token ring and FDDI.