The description, analysis and interpretation of the dynamic behaviour is an important and most crucial topic when designing‘and operating information systems. This was true in the past for classical communi—cation and computer systems. It is even more important for modern and future networks such as ISDN, ATM, mobile networks and distributed systems in general; traffic character and system behaviour change drastically when introducing new and intelligent serv1ces.

Some twenty five people from research institutes and universities met to present their research results and to discuss current topics of mutual interest including experimental and theoretical work.

Efficient models have been quite prominent since two sessions and a panel discussion have been devoted to this topic. A large amount of measured data is now available for the new services, and these data seem to call for a new and more sophisticated traffic characterisation. This has led to very lively debates.

We also discussed modelling paradigms. They include classical technique applied to optical networks, combining loss and queueing network models. More recent approaches have also been presented, such as stochastic Petrinets and stochastic process algebras. Naturally, the efficient solution of large Markov chains remains an important issue, since they are the base of most modelling techniques. New and interesting ideas have been presented with this respect.

We also discussed engineering problems in the context of manufacturing systems and modern communication networks, including planning, routing, and generally allocating resources in present as well as future networks. A few presentations were devoted to the extension of matrixanalytic methods for Markov chains. These concern systems with a more general transition probability structure, as well as some speculation about this applicability to spatial processes.

We very much appreciated the hospitality and the stimulating atmosphere at Schloss Dagstuhl. On behalf of all participants we thank the staff of the conference center and would like to say Auf Wiedersehen.

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