Compound Poisson distribution Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
The law of a sum of independent identically distributed claims with an independent Poisson distribution count of parameter . If the claim moment-generating function is , the aggregate transform is wherever finite. It has an atom at zero when the claims are positive. This is the fixed-time law of a Compound Poisson process.
Difference of independent Poisson processes Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
For independent Poisson processes with rates , their difference is a Lévy process with characteristic function . When the combined rate is positive, its jumps occur at rate , with direction probabilities proportional to the two rates. Equal unit rates give and a rate-two Compound Poisson process with Rademacher distribution jumps. Its paths are integer-valued, càdlàg, and of finite variation on compact intervals.
Assume independent stationary Compound Poisson process inputs, preemptive-resume priority for voice, first come first served within each class, capacity , a shared buffer of units of work, packet sizes bounded by , and voice delay gate . Write and . For flows with per-flow effective bandwidths , the continuous-time exponential workload bound givesprovided and . To prove this, couple with the unthinned infinite-buffer aggregate and voice queues driven by the same offered packets. Dropping work reduces both the total and voice workloads under this service discipline. A buffer-fit failure implies total workload greater than , and a voice-gate failure implies voice workload at least . Apply the two bounds and a union bound; Poisson arrivals see time averages converts stationary prearrival probabilities to offered-packet loss fractions. For target losses , choose and , then setThe two effective bandwidth constraints, together with strict aggregate mean-load stability, define a sufficient integer admission region. Voice loss includes the shared-buffer term, even though data packets have lower service priority.
Let be a Compound Poisson process with nonzero jump marks and positive rate, independent of a càdlàg process . Conditional on the path of , its discontinuities form a countable set. The Poisson jump times have continuous distributions and avoid that set almost surely. At every jump of , the sum therefore has the same nonzero jump. In particular a continuous Lévy process cannot have a positive-rate independent compound Poisson component. Applying this to each truncation of its Lévy measure proves that its jump measure is zero.
The coordinates of a vector-valued Compound Poisson process are independent exactly when its Lévy measure is supported on the union of the coordinate axes. For marks with uniform on and continuous , this is equivalent tofor every .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 21 6 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
When paths move only by jumps of size , there is neither a Gaussian component nor a continuous drift. The Lévy measure is supported on and has finite mass because these points are bounded away from zero. The process is therefore a Compound Poisson process, expressible as a difference of independent Poisson processeswhere the rates are respectively. The martingale assumptions implyHence . The embedded jump chain is a simple symmetric random walk, and the total jump rate is one. In particular,This is the symmetric Skellam distribution, with the explicit mass functionFor , sum the joint probabilities of ; for , interchange the two variables. The characteristic function is , consistent with the rate-one symmetric Poisson difference process. The condition that paths move only by jumps is essential to exclude a separate continuous component.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 27 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the exponent convention . A real Lévy process starts at , has stationary increments and independent increments, is stochastically continuous, and is taken in its càdlàg version. Its characteristic exponent of a Lévy process satisfies and is continuous. This convention has the opposite sign from the alternative , so .
For real , the exponential martingale of a Lévy process is integrable because is deterministic and finite. For , its conditional expectation with respect to the natural filtration isThe second equality uses both independent increments and stationary increments. Thus this is a complex martingale, meaning that its real and imaginary parts are martingales.
A probability distribution is an infinitely divisible distribution when, for every positive integer , it is the distribution of a sum of independent and identically distributed random variables. Their common distribution is allowed to depend on . For a Lévy process,and these summands are independent with the common law of . This proves the required infinite divisibility directly.
The Lévy–Khintchine theorem states that a real infinitely divisible distribution has characteristic function , where, for a unique triplet with the following fixed truncation,with , , a positive measure, , and . Conversely every such triplet gives an infinitely divisible distribution and a Lévy process, unique in law, whose time- characteristic function is . The Lévy measure need not be finite near zero. Taylor expansion makes the compensated integrand there, while the measure is finite away from zero, so the integral is well defined. The drift parameter depends on the truncation: using instead can alter by the contribution of atoms at . Here denotes Gaussian variance, not drift.
We now prove that continuity forces , using the suggested truncation rather than merely quoting a path classification. For , is finite. The truncated exponent is that of the Compound Poisson processwhere has rate and the marks have law when the rate is positive. The remaining exponent also has an admissible Lévy–Khintchine formula triplet. Hence construct independently a Lévy process with that exponent. The sum has the same finite-dimensional distributions as , and hence the same law on càdlàg path space. Continuity is therefore an almost-sure property of the sum if it is one of .
But independent compound Poisson jumps cannot cancel: conditional on the path of , its jump times are countable; the independent Poisson jump times have continuous distributions and avoid them almost surely. At each jump of , the sum has the same nonzero jump, of size at least . If , there is positive probability of such a jump on any fixed positive-length time interval, contradicting almost-sure continuity. Thus for every , and taking gives .
The characteristic function is now . If , the process has continuous paths and independent centered normal increments of variance , so it is standard Brownian motion on the original probability space. If , the increments are deterministic, and continuity together with equality at all rational times gives simultaneously for all almost surely. A Brownian motion on an enlarged space can be used in the zero-variance representation if necessary. Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 36 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For the amount of work offered by one flow in a time interval of length , its effective bandwidth at parameter and timescale isIts units are work per unit time. The parameter measures the price placed on bursts: a stringent rare-overflow target generally requires a larger value of than a loose target. The timescale describes the duration of the congestion episode. When the limit exists, writeThis is the long-time effective bandwidth. It includes a burstiness cost, rather than just the mean offered rate. For a finite-time flow with the required moments, , and effective bandwidth is increasing in . If is bounded, its limit as is the essential supremum of that interval's input rate, the peak-rate limit. The analogous long-time mean limit requires the usual interchange or regularity assumptions.
For independent flows their cumulant-generating functions add, soThe Chernoff bound therefore gives, for any in the common domain,Optimizing over produces the relevant Legendre-Fenchel transform. The Cramér theorem states that sample means of independent and identically distributed inputs whose moment-generating function is finite near zero have a large deviation principle, with rate function equal to the Legendre-Fenchel transform of their cumulant-generating function. More generally, the Gärtner–Ellis theorem applies to a convergent scaled log moment-generating function when zero lies inside its domain and the limit is lower semicontinuous and essentially smooth. It gives the same transform as a good rate function. A sample-path version, together with the contraction principle for large deviations for the queue workload, translates input deviations into overflow deviations. The compact-time and infinite-horizon continuity/tail hypotheses must be checked for the chosen traffic model.
A particularly useful rigorous queue bound holds for inputs with stationary increments and independent increments, such that . If , thenis a nonnegative supermartingale, since its conditional increment factor is . The maximal inequality for a nonnegative supermartingale on , followed by , gives the continuous-time exponential workload boundHere is the stationary queue workload of the stable infinite-buffer queue, represented by input from the past. This directly bounds the supremum over time; applying a one-time Chernoff bound alone would not establish it.
For a nonzero Compound Poisson process with bounded positive packet sizes and mean input rate less than , a positive root of exists and is unique. Here the root theorem can be made explicit:The upper bound was just proved. For the lower bound, use exponential tilting with density at time . Under the tilted law the net input has positive mean drift , by strict convexity and the positive-root equation. The strong law of large numbers then makes the first crossing time finite almost surely under that law. Its overshoot is at most . Changing measure at , first on and then letting , givesDividing the logarithmic bounds by proves .
Thus the familiar admission rule compares with , choosing from the desired buffer-tail exponent. For more general inputs, a logarithmic root theorem requires its own light-tail and renewal or sample-path hypotheses; the displayed supermartingale upper bound needs only the moment and increment assumptions stated above.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 36 4 b Solution 2026-10-14
The capacity and quality targets alone do not determine flow counts: the per-flow traffic statistics must also be supplied. The following explicit model gives a computable sufficient region, with genuine upper bounds on both loss fractions.
Measure queue workload and buffer size in bits. Denote capacity by , shared buffer size by , voice delay limit by , target voice loss by , and target data loss by , with . Let there be voice flows and data flows. Model each class- flow, , by a stationary Compound Poisson process with packet rate and positive independent packet sizes , and assume independence across flows and marks. Use a work-conserving preemptive-resume priority queue with a shared buffer, with voice priority and first come first served within each class. This preemptive or fluid approximation makes the predicted voice waiting time exactly , where is the remaining voice queue workload just before arrival. Assume packet sizes are bounded by a known and interpret the buffer gate as a packet-fit test; rejecting packets which do not fit is the packet version of the full-buffer rule.
For one flow the Compound Poisson process formula givesFor fixed-size packets of size , substitute . Estimate the packet rate and size law from measurements or a declared traffic contract. Also require the strict stability inequalityDefine and . Couple the switch with an unthinned infinite-buffer aggregate queue and an unthinned infinite-buffer voice-only queue, both driven by the same offered packets and both served at rate . Under the preemptive service discipline, dropping arrivals can only decrease both the total queue workload and the voice queue workload. Thus total switch queue workload and voice queue workload satisfy and in the stationary coupling. A packet-fit loss implies , and a voice-delay rejection implies .
Apply the continuous-time exponential workload bound to the two comparison queues. For any positive satisfyingthe stationary loss-event probabilities obeyThe second inequality is a union bound: voice can be lost either at the shared buffer or at its delay gate. Data congestion therefore contributes to voice loss despite its lower service priority. Poisson arrivals see time averages applies to each offered packet stream, whose future arrivals are independent of the prearrival state; the stationary event bounds are consequently bounds on the offered-packet loss fractions. Voice packets that are admitted have queueing delay below , because later voice packets join behind them and data work cannot delay them in this model.
To turn the bounds into flow counts, allocate loss budgetsFor example, and also work; equality with is harmless. The required sufficient effective-bandwidth admission region with a voice delay gate isIt ensures and . A simple enumeration isdiscarding negative bounds and pairs failing strict mean-load stability. The formulas assume positive-rate nonzero-size flows. Optimize a chosen revenue or flow-count objective over these integer pairs. Searching over the budget split can enlarge the sufficient region. For a bit-fluid buffer gate with no packet-fit issue, can be replaced by .
Real nonpreemptive packet service needs an additional residual-service allowance or an explicit priority queue workload analysis: a voice packet may have to wait for the data packet already in service. Burst-correlated voice sources also require richer descriptors, such as measured finite-time effective bandwidths or a Markov-modulated source model. For such inputs, additivity still holds for independent flows, but the independent-increment supermartingale bound is not automatic; use a valid sample-path large deviation principle or a model-specific overflow bound, with prefactors or a safety margin when using asymptotics. If packet arrivals do not form a Poisson process, loss fractions must be assessed at arrival epochs rather than inferred solely from time-average queue workload probabilities. These qualifications explain both how to calculate an admission region from specified traffic statistics and why the five switch/QoS parameters by themselves cannot supply a numerical answer.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 101 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
As in the intended independent-mark construction, take the entire sequence independent of the Poisson process, not merely independent of one fixed count. Then is a Compound Poisson process. For deterministic , its increment is independent of . To justify this carefully, first condition on . The past of uses only the counting history up to and marks among . The future count has independent rate- Poisson process increments, and future marks are fresh with the common law. Their joint conditional law is the same for every and every past history, so the increment is independent even of this larger marked history, hence of . Marks equal to zero do not cause a problem: may then reveal less than the full counting history.
By part (b), with Poisson parameter ,The proposed process is adapted to , nonnegative, andIn particular, no finite expectation of a mark is required. Also , andis independent of and has mean one. Therefore the exponential Laplace martingale of a compound Poisson process satisfiesThis proves every condition for a continuous-time martingale in the requested filtration. When , and the same conclusion reduces to the constant martingale .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 38 3 Solution 2026-10-14
Let be the cumulative claim amount and the surplus in the classical risk model. The supplied adjustment coefficient satisfies . The Compound Poisson process has independent increments, and the random-sum transform identity givesIt follows that is a nonnegative martingale with : conditional on the past, the multiplicative increment has expected value one. This is the exponential surplus martingale.
Let be the ruin stopping time. Surplus decreases only at claim arrivals, so on the deficit at ruin gives and . The optional stopping theorem at the bounded stopping time yieldsAs increases without bound, the events increase to eventual ruin. Hence the ultimate ruin probability satisfies the Lundberg inequalityThe proof uses only bounded-time stopping; it does not presume that the martingale can be stopped with equality of expected values at an unbounded ruin time.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 24 2 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Take two independent rate-one Poisson processes and , and letThe difference of independent Poisson processes starts at zero and has stationary increments and independent increments. Its paths are càdlàg. For an interval of length , the probability of any jump is , proving stochastic continuity. Thus is a Lévy process. The characteristic function of a Poisson distribution with mean is , so independence givesThe sample paths are integer-valued step functions with jumps or . On every bounded interval there are only finitely many jumps, and independent Poisson arrival times coincide with probability zero. The combined arrival rate is two: holding times are independent exponentials of rate two, and each jump direction has probability , independently of the holding times. This is equivalently a Compound Poisson process of rate two with Rademacher distribution jump sizes. Its paths have finite variation on compact time intervals, although there are infinitely many jumps over the whole half-line almost surely.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 34 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use for the premium income rate, reserving later for the smaller exponential decay rate. In the classical risk model, the surplus isHere is the relative safety loading. The aggregate claims form a Compound Poisson process. Define , so ruin occurs when . By independent increments and the exponential formula for a marked Poisson sum,Thus is a nonnegative continuous-time martingale with , because the adjustment coefficient makes the exponent vanish.
Let . Apply the optional stopping theorem at the bounded stopping time . On , , soLetting increase proves the Lundberg inequality and the unscaled limit:
For the precise asymptotic, putThe given exponential integral identity makes a probability density. Multiplying the given defective renewal equation by turns it into the ordinary renewal equationFor clarity, the version of the key renewal theorem used here is: if the interarrival law is nonarithmetic, has mean , and is directly Riemann integrable, the locally bounded solution of this renewal equation satisfies . The infinite-mean version gives zero for nonnegative directly Riemann integrable .
All the hypotheses can be checked here. The density gives a nonarithmetic distribution. The Tonelli theorem givesFurthermoreThus is continuous and integrable, and . On a mesh of width , the difference between its upper and lower sums is at most ; its upper sum is at most . This proves direct Riemann integrability rather than assuming it. Also by the Lundberg inequality, so the solution is locally bounded. Its renewal representation is , where and ; the residual after iteration tends to zero on compact intervals because sums of positive interarrivals tend to infinity.
Writing , the tilted interarrival expected value is . The key renewal theorem gives the Cramér–Lundberg ruin asymptoticIf , the same formula is interpreted as . A positive finite asymptotic constant requires ; this extra integrability is not explicitly stated in the paper.
For the final two-exponential case, evaluate the defective renewal equation at zero:One can identify the adjustment coefficient without silently assuming . For , setIt is finite and positive. Integrating the nonnegative terms of the defective renewal equation, using the Tonelli theorem, first shows that is finite and then givesAs , because . By monotone convergence theorem, . The integrated tail distribution in the classical risk model has density , so by the tail integral formula for moments. Hence solves the adjustment equation, and its stipulated uniqueness implies . Finally the displayed form of gives the remaining constantsIn particular the decay exponent and the coefficient do not affect or . The in these final answers is the printed decay rate, not .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 201 6 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Both Poisson processes start at zero and have càdlàg paths. On disjoint time intervals their increments are independent, and independence of the two processes makes the difference increments independent as well. Their increment laws depend only on interval length, so has stationary increments. For a time interval of length , the probability that either Poisson process has a jump is . This proves stochastic continuity. Consequently the difference is a Lévy process, equivalently a continuous-time symmetric simple random walk with total jump rate one and jumps and each chosen with probability .
The characteristic function of a Poisson variable of mean is . Independence therefore givesThus, in the negative-exponent convention of part (a),In the positive-exponent convention the answer is . The Compound Poisson process has mean zero and variance , consistent with the expansion .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 201 6 d Solution 2026-10-03
The joint process is a two-dimensional Compound Poisson process whose Lévy measure isTwo coordinates of a Lévy process are independent exactly when its Lévy measure charges only the coordinate axes and its Gaussian covariance has no cross term. Here there is no Gaussian part, so independence is equivalent toSince is continuous, this is equivalent to pointwise vanishing. Conversely, when the product vanishes, the mark sets where and are nonzero are disjoint; independent thinning of the Poisson random measure gives independent coordinate processes. Hence
Poisson stochastic integral with finite intensity Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
For a Poisson random measure on with finite intensity , its integral of a finite-valued measurable mark function is the finite sum of the marks at its random atoms. Its characteristic function is . On a time-mark space with intensity and finite mark intensity, restriction to each bounded time interval has finite intensity and defines a Compound Poisson process. Zero-valued marks do not affect the integral and need not appear in its Lévy measure.