Report #: TR-97-189 (CESDIS, NASA/GSFC)
Title: Analytical Modeling of Robotic Tape Libraries Using Stochastic Automata 
Author: Tugrul Dayar, Odysseas Pentakalos and Brooke Stephens
Date: January 1997

This paper presents results of preliminary work concerning the analytical
modeling of a robotic tape library using stochastic automata. This model 
is a first approximation which we use to test the efficiency and accuracy 
of stochastic automata networks as a modeling tool. The effects of 
interactive get and put requests, migration, and purging at online and 
nearline layers of a tertiary storage device are investigated. The 
discussion in this paper sheds further light to the merits and 
limitations of stochastic automata networks as a modeling methodology for 
evaluating the performance of complex real life applications.