The design and the operation of telecommunicaton networks is an area in which life can no longer be imagined without discrete mathematics. In fact, applications such as the optimization of cost efficient networks and low interference radio links have become standard in the telecommunication sector.

The ongoing rapid technological progress leads to a constantly growing request for bandwidth and to permanent innovation in technical network components. These changes and the successful work of the past, which has significantly raised expectations on, e.g., the survivability of networks against failures, give rise to ever new, more and more complex problems, in which stochastic components and the simultaneous treatment of several logical and physical layers play an increasingly important role.