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Poisson Process

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Definition
StochasticProcesses

A random process {Xt:t[0,)}\{X_{t}:t\in[0,\infty)\} is called a Poisson process with parameter λ>0\lambda>0 if the holding times are iid exponentially distributed i.e. Siiid\mboxExp(λ), iIS_{i}\stackrel{iid}\sim\mbox{Exp}(\lambda), \ i\in Iand the jump chain is defined as Yn=n, \mboxforn=0,1,2,Y_{n}=n, \ \mbox{for }n=0,1,2,\ldots

Let f:RRf:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R} be a function. We say f(h)=o(h)f(h)=o(h) if limh0f(h)h=0\lim_{h\to0} \frac{f(h)}{h}=0i.e. f(h)f(h) vanishes faster than hh.

For a Poisson Process, {Xt:t0}\{X_{t}:t\ge0\}, for 0s<t0\le s<t we call XtXsX_{t}-X_{s}the increment over (s,t](s,t] (i.e. the number of arrivals over (s,t](s,t]).

We say that a continuous-time process, {Xt:t0}\{X_{t}:t\ge0\}, has independent increments if its’ increments over any finite collection of disjoint intervals are independent, (partition process anyway you like, all increments are independent).

We say that a continuous-time process, {Xt:t0}\{X_{t}:t\ge0\}, has stationary increments if the distribution of Xh+sXsX_{h+s}-X_{s}does not depend on ss for any h>0h>0 (i.e. irregardless of where we take the increment, every increment of size hh has an identical distribution).

1. A Poisson process is non-explosive as P(n=1Sn=)=1P\left(\sum\limits_{n=1}^{\infty}S_{n}=\infty \right)=1where Sn=1λ, n{1,2,}S_{n}=\frac{1}{\lambda}, \ \forall n\in\{1,2,\ldots\}this is because for t0t\ge0 Xt=n    Jnt<Jn+1X_{t}=n\implies J_{n}\le t<J_{n+1}(this is just by definition of the jump chain, trivial result) 2. We can view a Poisson process as a counting process. We will call holding times {Sn:n1}\{S_{n}:n\ge1\}, the interarrival times and Xt\mboxisthenumberofarrivalsfrom[0,t]X_{t}\mbox{ is the number of arrivals from }[0,t] 3. When we say “events arrive according to a Poisson process”, it means that the interarrival times are iid \mboxExp(λ)\mbox{Exp}(\lambda) (i.e. {Sn:n1}iid\mboxExp(λ)\{S_{n}:n\ge1\}\stackrel{iid}\sim\mbox{Exp}(\lambda)) and at every event only one arrival occurs.

Let {Xt:t0}\{X_{t}:t\ge0\} be a Poisson Process with rate λ\lambda. Then for any s>0s>0, {Xt+sXs:t0}\{X_{t+s}-X_{s}:t\ge0\} is also a Poisson Process with rate λ\lambda, independent of {Xr:r<s}\{X_{r}:r<s\}.

Intuition

Recall Exponential Random Variable, this seems to be a direct application of that.

If {Xt:t0}\{X_{t}:t\ge0\} and {Yt:t0}\{Y_{t}:t\ge0\} are independent Poisson processes of rates λ\lambda and μ\mu, respectively, then {Zt=Xt+Yt:t0}\{Z_{t}=X_{t}+Y_{t}:t\ge0\} is a Poisson process of rate λ+μ\lambda+\mu. i.e. Zt\mboxPoisson(λ+μ)Z_{t}\sim\mbox{Poisson}(\lambda+\mu)

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