I am trying to figure out the mean (expected value) of the number of tries needed to successfully transmit a packet over a network.
At first I thought the obvious: its just a Bernoulli Process and can be described by a binomial random variable with mean n*p. Then I realized that this would give me the expected number of successes over a bunch of packet transmissions.
What I am looking for is the expected number of tries to successfully transmit a single packet.
It seems like it should be easy, but looking over my old probability book, I am not seeing it... anyone know the correct way? (I suck at probability)
At first I thought the obvious: its just a Bernoulli Process and can be described by a binomial random variable with mean n*p. Then I realized that this would give me the expected number of successes over a bunch of packet transmissions.
What I am looking for is the expected number of tries to successfully transmit a single packet.
It seems like it should be easy, but looking over my old probability book, I am not seeing it... anyone know the correct way? (I suck at probability)