Max-Plus: A Network Algebra.

Networks can support Quality of Service (QoS) architectures for a wide variety of applications. The Network Calculus (NC) appeared as a set of rules and results for computing bounds for QoS parameters. The goal of this paper is to improve the systematic use of the Max-Plus algebra in the formulation and derivation of NC results. To illustrate the presented methodology, we analyze the problem of optimizing the playback delay and the buffer size of an optimal video decoder with some look-ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]