The aim of this paper is to investigate the oscillatory and asymptotic behavior of solutions of a third-order delay difference equation. By using comparison theorems, we deduce oscillation of the difference equation from its relation to certain associated first-order delay difference equations or inequalities. Examples are given to illustrate the main results.<br /><br />

In this paper, we establish some sufficient conditions which ensure that the solutions of the third order delay difference equation with a negative middle term $$ \Delta \bigl(a_{n}\Delta (\Delta w_{n})^{\alpha } \bigr)-p_{n}(\Delta w_{n+1})^{ \alpha }-q_{n}h(w_{n-l})=0,\quad n\geq n_{0}, $$ Δ ( a n Δ ( Δ w n ) α ) − p n ( Δ w n + 1 ) α − q n h ( w n − l ) = 0 , n ≥ n 0 , are oscillatory. Moreover, we study the asymptotic behavior of the nonoscillatory solutions. Two illustrative examples are included for illustration.

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Two models of an intermittently used system with preparation time for the repair facility are considered. Mean stationary rate of the disappointments, the joint probability that disappointments do not occur at specified intervals are obtained for both the models.