Opening new directions in research in both discrete event dynamic
systems as well as in stochastic control, this volume focuses on a wide
class of control and of optimization problems over sequences of integer
numbers. This is a counterpart of convex optimization in the setting of
discrete optimization. The theory developed is applied to the control of
stochastic discrete-event dynamic systems. Some applications are
admission, routing, service allocation and vacation control in queuing
networks. Pure and applied mathematicians will enjoy reading the book
since it brings together many disciplines in mathematics: combinatorics,
stochastic processes, stochastic control and optimization, discrete
event dynamic systems, algebra.