Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 36 3 b Solution 2026-10-14
Let , and first suppose . For the infinite-horizon contraction, use the usual sublinear path space for fluid queues,We interpret the supplied path-space large deviation principle in this norm, or in a topology with the same workload-continuity property. The paper does not specify its norm explicitly; mere convergence on compact time intervals would not justify an infinite-horizon contraction.
Define the queue workload functionalIt is finite and nonnegative on the sublinear path space for fluid queues. Here is the required continuity argument. Fix and choose so that for . If , then for ,The corresponding expression for is also negative there, whereas at zero both are zero. Each supremum can therefore be restricted to , givingThus is a continuous map; this proof also shows why the negative drift is essential.
Substituting into the queue workload givesThe contraction principle for large deviations says that a continuous image of a family with good rate function has the same large-deviation speed and good rate function obtained by minimizing over each fibre. ConsequentlyIn particular : in the path norm almost surely, so the given large deviation principle and lower semicontinuity give , and . If , the queue workload is identically zero and the rate function is zero at zero and infinite elsewhere. No unspecified variance normalization of the fractional Brownian motion is needed for this variational answer.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 36 3 c Solution 2026-10-14
Let and fix . Starting with part (b), the contraction principle for large deviations under the map gives an LDP for with speed and rate function .
Alternatively, replace by in parts (a) and (b), using the real-scale justification in part (a). The same family has large-deviation speed and rate function . When expressed at speed , that rate function is . The two descriptions of the same large deviation principle must agree:For clarity, uniqueness here is a general property of lower semicontinuous rate functions: at a point , the shrinking-neighborhood logarithmic bounds recover , since as . Thus two rate functions for the same family and speed cannot differ.
Taking the base argument and replacing by any positive queue size givesFor the rate function is infinite. In the usual nondegenerate case is finite, so the formula also holds at . This is the self-similar Gaussian workload rate; the exponent comes from the Hurst parameter, while the constant comes from the path rate function and the drift and noise scales.
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.
Rate function under scalar clipping 2026-10-14
For , the contraction principle for large deviations under scalar clipping gives in , the displayed endpoint costs, and infinite cost outside . The endpoint costs can differ from and because clipping collects a whole input tail into a single output atom.
Self-similar Gaussian workload rate 2026-10-14
Let a centered Gaussian process satisfy with , and suppose has a large deviation principle in the sublinear path space for fluid queues, with speed and good rate function . For , put and . Self-similarity gives . Time substitution and the contraction principle for large deviations therefore give an LDP for with speed andThe same family has rate function by contraction, and by replacing with and expressing the speed again as . Uniqueness of a rate function gives , hence for , with .
Let be a fixed sum of independent exponential random variables with smallest rate , and let be the sum of independent rate- exponential random variables, independent of , with fixed and . At large-deviation speed , has rate function for ; the sample mean has rate function for . The product large-deviation principle and contraction principle for large deviations giveIndeed the derivative of the quantity minimized with respect to is . Its minimizer is . Beyond that transition, a single slow exponential random variable carries the extra excursion; the rate function becomes affine.