|
Featured Textbook in
Computer Science is :
The Internet as a Large-Scale Complex System edited by Kihong Park
and Walter Willinger - A Volume in the Santa Fé Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity.
Kihong Park
is Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at
Purdue University. Walter Willinger is a member of the
Information and Software Systems Research Center at AT & T
Labs-Research, Florham Park, New Jersey.
About this book
: |
 |
|
The Internet has become an attractive as well as
challenging case study representing |
|
a large-scale complex system. A highly-engineered
structure, it may even be construed |
|
as the largest man-made "many-body" system. As such
it offers unique and |
|
unprecedented opportunities for measuring practically
all aspects of its multi-faceted |
|
behaviour. The resulting empirical data have already
proven to be invaluable for gaining |
|
novel insights into the network's spacio-temporal
dynamics. These data become even |
|
more important when one tries to understand the
Internet's complex and emergent |
|
behaviour in terms of elementary networking-based
mechanisms. For example, the |
|
discoveries of fractal or self-similar network
traffic, power-law behaviour in network |
|
topology and World Wide Web connectivity are
instances of unsuspected, emergent |
|
system traits. Their potential impact on network
performance and control makes more |
|
than a mere curiosity. |
|
User behaviour is another important aspect of the
Internet as a complex system |
|
metaphor. Network systems, when occupied by selfish
or greedy users, take on the traits |
|
of a non-cooperative multi-player game and
understanding its dynamics with respect to |
|
stability and efficiency is an essential concern.
Lastly, fault-tolerance and robustness of |
|
large-scale networked systems can exhibit spatial and
temporal correlations whose design |
|
analysis and management may benefit from
self-organization principles in biological |
|
systems and multi-resolution analysis. |
|
This textbook treats a wide range of research addressing
a spectrum of issues related to |
|
understanding the complex problems and future
development of the Internet. The |
|
dialogue that emerges provides a broader, deeper
grasp of the Internet that is needed to |
|
meet forthcoming challenges. |
| |
|
Buy
This Book |
|
See Our Full List of
Computer and
I.T. Books |
