Introduction: Models and Applications

The purpose of this introductory chapter is the illustration of some of the wide variety of difficult and important problems that can be treated by means of heavy traffic analysis. Many good examples can be drawn from communications and computer systems and networks, manufacturing systems, and other queueing-type networks in many areas. Only a few examples can be given. Any selection depends on the interests and tastes of the author, and one can select these examples in many ways. But the examples selected are canonical in that each is representative of a large class of current interest. These examples should provide some flavor for the type of problems that are of interest.