Modeling and Analysis of Stochastic Systems

Rating:
Summary: An average book
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: precise, modern treatment of stochastic analysis
Review: 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 teachingfrom, 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