Introduction and Overview

Abstract

Studying the properties of one realization (sample path) of a stochastic process often leads to a better and deeper understanding of the properties of the system under study. It also provides a powerful tool for practitioners to determine which properties of a given system are independent of the usually imposed probabilistic assumptions. By its very nature a sample-path argument is deterministic and therefore requires no probabilistic assumptions. By focusing attention on a particular sample path, we are in effect assuming that the behavior of the system over time is completely known to us; thus probabilistic arguments are irrelevant.