Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2005 / iii / Paper 36 / 3 / c / Solution

Let $\kappa =2(1-H)$ and fix $a>0$. Starting with part (b), the contraction principle for large deviations under the map $q\mapsto q/a$ gives an LDP for $r(X)/(aN)$ with speed $N^{\kappa }$ and rate function $q\mapsto J(aq)$.

Alternatively, replace $N$ by $aN$ in parts (a) and (b), using the real-scale justification in part (a). The same family has large-deviation speed $(aN{)}^{\kappa }$ and rate function $J(q)$. When expressed at speed $N^{\kappa }$, that rate function is $a^{\kappa }J(q)$. 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 $x$, the shrinking-neighborhood logarithmic bounds recover $I(x)$, since ${\inf }_{B(x,\eta )}I\to I(x)$ as $\eta \downarrow 0$. Thus two rate functions for the same family and speed cannot differ.

Taking the base argument $q=1$ and replacing $a$ by any positive queue size givesFor $q<0$ the rate function is infinite. In the usual nondegenerate case $J(1)$ is finite, so the formula also holds at $q=0$. 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.