
41Computer Networks with Finite Buffers
previous model, there is no continuous transition to the saturation. The picture we have here closely
resembles a liquid–gas rst-order phase transition. Close to the critical point, the network behavior
becomes very unstable, which makes it difcult to determine the critical point precisely. Roughly,
the critical load is λ
c
= 0.0546.
It is remarkable that the actual network load during the simulation follows very closely the sec-
ond-order approximation of the load
until the point when network goes to the saturation state
(Figure 2.11). However, the picture for the latency shown in Figure 2.12 is ...