QUASI-BIRTH-AND-DEATH PROCESSES AND QUEUEING MODELS

           Marcel F. Neuts, University of Arizona

Quasi-birth-and-death processes (QBDs) are generalizations of
simple random walk to a state space with a semi-infinite
lattice structure. They arise naturally in various queueing
models and have a rich mathematical theory, which will be
reviewed. I shall describe several open problems and suggest
QBDs whose numerical exploration will provide important new
insights into various questions of applied interest.