Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / ii / Paper 3 / 25K / b / Solution

A renewal process has independent identically distributed, nonnegative, almost surely finite inter-arrival times $X_i$, epochs $S_0=0,S_n={\sum }_{i=1}^n{X}_i$, and count $N(t)=\max \{n:S_n\le t\}$. Allowing zero inter-arrivals is harmless provided $\mathbb{P}(X_1>0)>0$. The hypothesis $\mathbb{E}{X}_1>0$ ensures there is $\epsilon >0$ with $p=\mathbb{P}(X_1\ge \epsilon )>0$.

The strong law of large numbers for the indicators gives $S_n\ge \epsilon {\sum }_{i=1}^n{1}_{X_i\ge \epsilon }\to \infty$, so $N(t)$ is finite for finite $t$. Conversely every fixed $S_n$ is finite, so eventually $N(t)\ge n$. On their countable common probability-one event, this proves $\boxed{N(t)\to \infty \text{ as }t\to \infty \text{ almost surely}}$.

For fixed $t$, put $L=\lfloor t/\epsilon \rfloor$. The hinted comparison process has epochs $S_n^{\prime }=\epsilon {\sum }_{i=1}^n{1}_{X_i\ge \epsilon }\le S_n$, hence $N(t)\le N^{\prime }(t)$. Equivalently,If $p<1$, for $n>L$ this is bounded by $C_{t,p}{n}^L(1-p{)}^n$, by summing the first $L+1$ binomial distribution. Thus ${\sum }_n{e}^{\theta n}\mathbb{P}(N(t)=n)<\infty$ for $0<\theta <-\log (1-p)$. If $p=1$, $N(t)\le L$ deterministically. Therefore a strictly positive exponential moment exists for every fixed finite $t$, with the same allowed $\theta$ for all such $t$. Almost-sure finiteness of the inter-arrivals is implicit in a proper renewal process; allowing an infinite inter-arrival with positive probability would invalidate the divergence claim.