Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2009
In this paper we describe a class of discrete time processes that can be used to model packet arrival streams in packetized communication. Mathematically, (K(t)) can be seen as a discrete time self-exciting point process, as a multitype branching process, or as an epidemic with immigration of infected people. The purpose of this paper is to show that this class of models simultaneously is quite useful and analytically more tractable than is obvious at first glance. It is shown that certain probabilities can reliably be computed using generating function methods, and expressions are given for the second order properties and for the asymptotic index of dispersion.