This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEMS, MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS AND COMMUNICATION NETWORKS is based on the proceedings of a workshop that was an integral part of the 1992-93 IMA program on "Control Theory. " The study of discrete event dynamical systems (DEDS) has become rapidly popular among researchers in systems and control, in communication networks, in manufacturing, and in distributed computing. This development has created problems for re searchers and potential "consumers" of the research. The first problem is the veritable Babel of languages,...