Let {Zn}n≥0 be a random walk with a negative drift and independent and identically distributed increments with heavy-tailed distribution, and let M = supn≥0Zn be its supremum. Asmussen and Klüppelberg (1996) considered the behavior of the random walk given that M > x for large x, and obtained a limit theorem, as x → ∞, for the distribution of the quadruple that includes the time τ = τ(x) to exceed level x, position Zτ at this time, position Zτ-1 at the prior time, and the trajectory up to it (similar results were obtained for the Cramér-Lundberg insurance risk process). We obtain here several extensions of this result to various regenerative-type models and, in particular, to the case of a random walk with dependent increments. Particular attention is given to describing the limiting conditional behavior of τ. The class of models includes Markov-modulated models as particular cases. We also study fluid models, the Björk-Grandell risk process, give examples where the order of τ is genuinely different from the random walk case, and discuss which growth rates are possible. Our proofs are purely probabilistic and are based on results and ideas from Asmussen, Schmidli and Schmidt (1999), Foss and Zachary (2002), and Foss, Konstantopoulos and Zachary (2007).

In this paper we study efficient simulation algorithms for estimating P(X›x), where X is the total time of a job with ideal time T that needs to be restarted after a failure. The main tool is importance sampling, where a good importance distribution is identified via an asymptotic description of the conditional distribution of T given X›x. If T≡t is constant, the problem reduces to the efficient simulation of geometric sums, and a standard algorithm involving a Cramér-type root, γ(t), is available. However, we also discuss an algorithm that avoids finding the root. If T is random, particular attention is given to T having either a gamma-like tail or a regularly varying tail, and to failures at Poisson times. Different types of conditional limit occur, in particular exponentially tilted Gumbel distributions and Pareto distributions. The algorithms based upon importance distributions for T using these asymptotic descriptions have bounded relative error as x→∞ when combined with the ideas used for a fixed t. Nevertheless, we give examples of algorithms carefully designed to enjoy bounded relative error that may provide little or no asymptotic improvement over crude Monte Carlo simulation when the computational effort is taken into account. To resolve this problem, an alternative algorithm using two-sided Lundberg bounds is suggested.

Consider the GI/G/1 queueing system with traffic intensity 1 and let wk and lk denote the actual waiting time of the kth unit and the number of units present in the system at the kth arrival including the kth unit, respectively. Furthermore let τ denote the number of units served during the first busy period and μ the intensity of the service. It is shown that as k →∞, where a is some known constant, , , and are independent, is a Brownian meander and is a Wiener process. A similar result is also given for the difference of virtual waiting time and queue length processes. These results are also extended to a wider class of queueing systems than GI/G/1 queues and a scheme of series of queues.

We study the shape of the binary tree containing 0 that is created from percolation of coalescing random walks. The key result is a duality lemma describing the shape of the tree. Furthermore, we show that and where A(R0), M(R0), L(R0) are respectively the area, the number of external nodes and the length of the longest path of the tree R0.

Let Sn = X1 + · · · + Xn be a random walk with negative drift μ < 0, let F(x) = P(Xk ≦ x), v(u) =inf{n : Sn > u} and assume that for some γ > 0 is a proper distribution with finite mean Various limit theorems for functionals of X1,· · ·, Xv(u) are derived subject to conditioning upon {v(u)< ∞} with u large, showing similar behaviour as if the Xi were i.i.d. with distribution For example, the deviation of the empirical distribution function from properly normalised, is shown to have a limit in D, and an approximation for by means of Brownian bridge is derived. Similar results hold for risk reserve processes in the time up to ruin and the GI/G/1 queue considered either within a busy cycle or in the steady state. The methods produce an alternate approach to known asymptotic formulae for ruin probabilities as well as related waiting-time approximations for the GI/G/1 queue. For example uniformly in N, with WN the waiting time of the Nth customer.