Reservation procedures constitute the core of many popular data transmission protocols. They
consist of two steps: A request phase in which a station reserves the communication channel and
a transmission phase in which the actual data transmission takes place. Such procedures are
often applied in communication networks that are characterised by a shared communication
channel with large round-trip times. In this book we propose queuing models for situations
that require a reservation procedure and validate their applicability in the context of cable
networks. We offer various mathematical models to better understand the performance of these
reservation procedures. The book covers four key performance models and modifications to
these: Contention trees the repairman model the bulk service queue and tandem queues. The
relevance of this book is not limited to reservation procedures and cable networks and
performance analysts from a variety of areas may benefit as all models have found application
in other fields as well.
