Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences was first conceived, published, and disseminated by the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS) * at Purdue University in 1 957, starting its coverage of theses with the academic year 1955. Beginning with Volume 13, the printing and dissemination phases of the activity were transferred to University Microfilms/Xerox of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the thought that such an arrangement would be more beneficial to the academic and general scientific and technical community. After five years of this joint undertaking we had concluded that it was in the interest of all con cerned if the printing and distribution of the volumes were handled by an interna tional publishing house to assure improved service and broader dissemination. Hence, starting with Volume 18, Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences has been disseminated on a worldwide basis by Plenum Publishing Cor poration of New York, and in the same year the coverage was broadened to include Canadian universities. All back issues can also be ordered from Plenum. We have reported in Volume 29 (thesis year 1984) a total of 12,637 theses titles from 23 Canadian and 202 United States universities. We are sure that this broader base for these titles reported will greatly enhance the value of this important annual reference work. While Volume 29 reports theses submitted in 1984, on occasion, certain univer sities do report theses submitted in previous years but not reported at the time.

The research papers in this volume describe recent, original developments in techniques, tools and applications in the area of communication system performance. Involved in the project are researchers from the world's leading universities, research institutes and companies.

Computer Networks, Architecture and Applications covers many aspects of research in modern communications networks for computing purposes.

This is a book about the bricks and mortar out of which are built those edifices that so well characterize late twentieth century industrial society networks of computers and terminals. Such computer networks are playing an increasing role in our daily lives, somewhat indirectly up to now as the hidden servants of banks, retail credit bureaus, airline reservation offices, and so forth, but soon they will become more visible as they enter our offices and homes and directly become part of our work, entertainment, and daily living. The study of how computer networks work is a combined study of communication theory and computer science, two disciplines appearing to have very little in common. The modern communication scientist wishing to work in this area finds himself in suddenly unfamiliar territory. It is no longer sufficient for him to think of transmission, modulation, noise immun ity, error bounds, and other abstractions of a single communication link; he is dealing now with a topologically complex interconnection of such links. And what is more striking, solving the problems of getting the signal from one point to another is just the beginning of the communication process. The communication must be in the right form to be routed properly, to be handled without congestion, and to be understood at the right points in the network. The communication scientist suddenly finds himself charged with responsibility for such things as code and format conversions, addressing, flow control, and other abstractions of a new and challenging kind.