Leader: Urtzi Ayesta

We develop mathematical methods and software tools for the performance evaluation, optimization and control of communication networks and distributed systems. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the enhancement of communication networks (protocols, architectures, applications) with particular emphasis on the Internet, IoT, embedded networks and wireless systems. Our main theoretical tool will be stochastic modelling, analysis and optimization. Stochastic modelling and analysis has been a popular method for analyzing the behavior of algorithms in complex networks. Indeed, randomness is inherent in the network. For example, the behavior of Internet users – when they connect, what they download, when they disconnect – is random. Moreover, changes in topology either due to user mobility or due to faults are random as well. In the context of embedded systems, we resort to deterministic or stochastic worst-case analyses in order to obtain tight bounds on the delay performance. Furthermore, optimization techniques provide the fundamental ideas for efficient resource allocation in such networks.