A GSMP Formalism for Discrete Event Systems

P. W. Glynn

Discrete Event Dynamic Systems [Yu-Chi Ho, ed.].  IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ (1992)

We describe here a precise mathematical framework for the study of discrete event systems. The idea is to define a particular type of stochastic process, called a generalized semi-Markov process (GSMP), which captures the essential dynamical structure of a discrete event system. The paper also attempts to give a flavor of the qualitative theory and numerical algorithms that can be obtained as a result of viewing discrete event systems as GSMPs.