Maria Serna’s Contributions to Adversarial Queuing Theory

Abstract

Adversarial Queuing Theory (AQT) is one of the areas to which Maria Serna has deeply contributed in her scientific career. Most of her research in this area took place during the lustrum 2001-2005, while advising the PhD of Maria J. Blesa, and also in conjunction with other researchers. AQT is an adversarial model for the study of packet-switching communication networks under worst case conditions. In this model a fundamental concept is that of stability of a combination of network and packet scheduling protocol in front of an adversary that controls the arrival of packets. There is stability if the adversary cannot cause the number of packets in the network to grow unbounded.Maria’s contributions, summarized in this document, include results in the stability of network and protocols, and the definition and study of AQT models with important new characteristics,like priorities, failures, or networks with different bandwidths and packet lengths. These results keep impacting the new research currently done in the AQT mode.