Introduction

Networked service systems can be modeled and analyzed by using different approaches. More in‐depth, analysis, dimensioning, and optimization of service systems can be faced along three main lines: analytical models, simulations, and experiments. Computer simulation for network traffic engineering purposes amounts to defining a detailed operational model of the system and reproducing all processes involved in this detailed model by means of a computer program. Analysis and design of service systems go through an abstraction process that leads from real‐life systems or processes to a simplified formal description that yields to mathematical description. This chapter derives a model and develops mathematical analysis and simulations. It states a basic view of supervised machine learning as a problem of function identification. The chapter also presents tools and examples oriented to developing modeling skills.