On the single server retrial queue subject to breakdowns

This paper deals with a single server retrial queueing system subject to active and independent breakdowns. The objective is to extend the results given independently by Aissani [1] and Kulkarni and Choi [15]. To this end, we introduce the concept of fundamental server period and an auxiliary queueing system with breakdowns and option for leaving the system. Then, we concentrate our attention on the limiting distribution of the system state. We obtain simplified expressions for the partial generating functions of the server state and the number of customers in the retrial group, a recursive scheme for computing the limiting probabilities and closed-form formulae for the second order partial moments. Some stochastic decomposition results are also investigated. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A mixed priority retrial queue with negative arrivals,unreliable server and multiple vacations

A retrial queue accepting two types of positive customers and negative arrivals, mixed priorities, unreliable server and multiple vacations is considered. In case of blocking the first type customers can be queued whereas the second type customers leave the system and try their luck again after a random time period. When a first type customer arrives during the service of a second type customer, he either pushes the customer in service in orbit (preemptive) or he joins the queue waiting to be served (non-preemptive). Moreover negative arrivals eliminate the customer in service and cause server’s abnormal breakdown, while in addition normal breakdowns may also occur. In both cases the server is sent immediately for repair. When, upon a service or repair completion, the server finds no first type customers waiting in queue remains idle and activates a timer. If timer expires before an arrival of a positive customer the server departs for multiple vacations. For such a system the stability conditions and the system state probabilities are investigated both in a transient and in a steady state. A stochastic decomposition result is also presented. Interesting applications are also discussed. Numerical results are finally obtained and used to investigate system performance.     

On the steady-state queue size distribution of the discrete-timeGeo/G/1 queue with repeated customers

In this paper, we study the steady-state queue size distribution of the discrete-timeGeo/G/1 retrial queue. We derive analytic formulas for the probability generating function of the number of customers in the system in steady-state. It is shown that the stochastic decomposition law holds for theGeo/G/1 retrial queue. Recursive formulas for the steady-state probabilities are developed. Computations based on these recursive formulas are numerically stable because the recursions involve only nonnegative terms. Since the regularGeo/G/1 queue is a special case of theGeo/G/1 retrial queue, the recursive formulas can also be used to compute the steady-state queue size distribution of the regularGeo/G/1 queue. Furthermore, it is shown that a continuous-timeM/G/1 retrial queue can be approximated by a discrete-timeGeo/G/1 retrial queue by dividing the time into small intervals of equal length and the approximation approaches the exact when the length of the interval tends to zero. This relationship allows us to apply the recursive formulas derived in this paper to compute the approximate steady-state queue size distribution of the continuous-timeM/G/1 retrial queue and the regularM/G/1 queue.Partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through grant OGP0046415.Partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through grant OGP0105828.     

TheM/G/1 retrial queue with the server subject to starting failures

In this paper, we study a retrial queueing model with the server subject to starting failures. We first present the necessary and sufficient condition for the system to be stable and derive analytical results for the queue length distribution as well as some performance measures of the system in steady state. We show that the general stochastic decomposition law forM/G/1 vacation models also holds for the present system. Finally, we demonstrate that a few well known queueing models are special cases of the present model and discuss various interpretations of the stochastic decomposition law when applied to each of these special cases.Partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, grant OGP0046415.Partially supported by internal research grant of Mount Saint Vincent University.     

A retrial queue with redundancy and unreliable server

Retrial queues are useful in the stochastic modelling of computer and telecommunication systems amongst others. In this paper we study a version of the retrial queue with variable service. Such a point of view gives another look at the unreliable retrial queueing problem which includes the redundancy model.By using the theory of piecewise Markovian processes, we obtain the analogue of the Pollaczek-Khintchine formula for such retrial queues, which is useful for operations researchers to obtain performance measures of interest.     

A Discrete-Time Geo/G/1 retrial queue with the server subject to starting failures

This paper studies a discrete-time Geo/G/1 retrial queue where the server is subject to starting failures. We analyse the Markov chain underlying the regarded queueing system and present some performance measures of the system in steady-state. Then, we give two stochastic decomposition laws and find a measure of the proximity between the system size distributions of our model and the corresponding model without retrials. We also develop a procedure for calculating the distributions of the orbit and system size as well as the marginal distributions of the orbit size when the server is idle, busy or down. Besides, we prove that the M/G/1 retrial queue with starting failures can be approximated by its discrete-time counterpart. Finally, some numerical examples show the influence of the parameters on several performance characteristics. This work is supported by the DGINV through the project BFM2002-02189.     

The m/g/1 retrial queue with nonpersistent customers

We consider anM/G/1 retrial queue in which blocked customers may leave the system forever without service. Basic equations concerning the system in steady state are established in terms of generating functions. An indirect method (the method of moments) is applied to solve the basic equations and expressions for related factorial moments, steady-state probabilities and other system performance measures are derived in terms of server utilization. A numerical algorithm is then developed for the calculation of the server utilization and some numerical results are presented.     

A single server queue with service interruptions

In this paper we characterize the queue-length distribution as well as the waiting time distribution of a single-server queue which is subject to service interruptions. Such queues arise naturally in computer and communication problems in which customers belong to different classes and share a common server under some complicated service discipline. In such queues, the viewpoint of a given class of customers is that the server is not available for providing service some of the time, because it is busy serving customers from a different class. A natural special case of these queues is the class of preemptive priority queues. In this paper, we consider arrivals according the Markovian Arrival Process (MAP) and the server is not available for service at certain times. The service times are assumed to have a general distribution. We provide numerical examples to show that our methods are computationally feasible. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A preemptive resume priority retrial queue with state dependent arrivals, unreliable server and negative customers

In this paper we consider an unreliable single server retrial queue accepting two types of customers, with negative arrivals, preemptive resume priorities and vacations. A distinguishing feature of the model is that the rates of the Poisson arrival process depends on the server state. For this model we investigate the stability conditions and the joint queue length distribution in steady state. We also prove that our model satisfies the stochastic decomposition property. Transient, as well as steady state solutions for reliability measures are obtained. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the typical features of the model under consideration.     

Flow time distributions in aK classM/G/1 priority feedback queue

In this paper, aK classM/G/1 queueing system with feedback is examined. Each arrival requires at least one, and possibly up toK service phases. A customer is said to be in classk if it is waiting for or receiving itskth phase of service. When a customer finishes its phasek ≤K service, it either leaves the system with probabilityp _k, or it instantaneously reenters the system as a classk + 1 customer with probability (1 −p _k). It is assumed thatp _k = 1. Service is non-preemptive and FCFS within a specified priority ordering of the customer classes. Level crossing analysis of queues and delay cycle results are used to derive the Laplace-Stieltjes Transform (LST) for the PDF of the sojourn time in classes 1,…,k;k ≤K.     

A single server queue in a hard-real-time environment

We consider a single server first in first out queue in which each arriving task has to be completed within a certain period of time (its deadline). More precisely, each arriving task has its own deadline - a non-negative real number - and as soon as the response time of one task exceeds its deadline, the whole system in considered to have failed. (In that sense the deadline is hard.) The main practical motivation for analyzing such queues comes from the need to evaluate mathematically the reliability of computer systems working with real time constraints (space or aircraft systems for instance). We shall therefore be mainly concerned with the analytical characterization of the transient behavior of such a queue in order to determine the probability of meeting all hard deadlines during a finite period of time (the ‘mission time’). The probabilistic methods for analyzing such systems are suggested by earlier work on impatience in telecommunication systems [1,2].     

Delay analysis of discrete-time priority queue with structured inputs

This paper investigates a discrete-time priority queue with multi-class customers. Applying a delay-cycle analysis, we explicitly derive the probability generating function of the waiting time for an individual class in a geometric batch input queue under preemptive-resume and head-of-the-line priority rules. The conservation law and waiting time characterization for a general class of discrete-time queues are also presented. The results in this paper cover several previous results as special cases.     

A two-queue,one-server model with priority for the longer queue

The queueing model studied consists of one server and two queues. Each queue has its own Poisson arrival stream and service time distribution. After a service completion, the server proceeds with a customer from the longer queue, if the queues are unequal; if the queues are equal, the server chooses with some probability a customer from one of the queues. The model is of practical interest in performance analysis, but also of theoretical interest because the functional equation to be solved has not yet been studied in the queueing literature. A basic analysis of this functional equation is presented. Some numerical results are given to assess the influence of the present service discipline. Some new properties of L.S. transforms of service time distributions are discussed in the appendix.Dr. T. Katayama has formulated the present problem and brought it to the author's attention during his visit in October/November 1984 to the NTT-Electr. Comm. Lab.'s Musashino, Tokyo 180.     

On priority queues with impatient customers

In this paper, we study three different problems where one class of customers is given priority over the other class. In the first problem, a single server receives two classes of customers with general service time requirements and follows a preemptive-resume policy between them. Both classes are impatient and abandon the system if their wait time is longer than their exponentially distributed patience limits. In the second model, the low-priority class is assumed to be patient and the single server chooses the next customer to serve according to a non-preemptive priority policy in favor of the impatient customers. The third problem involves a multi-server system that can be used to analyze a call center offering a call-back option to its impatient customers. Here, customers requesting to be called back are considered to be the low-priority class. We obtain the steady-state performance measures of each class in the first two problems and those of the high-priority class in the third problem by exploiting the level crossing method. We furthermore adapt an algorithm from the literature to obtain the factorial moments of the low-priority queue length of the multi-server system exactly.      

A discrete-time Geo/G/1 retrial queue with preferred and impatient customers

This paper is concerned with a discrete-time Geo/G/1 retrial queue with preferred, impatient customers and general retrial times. We analyze the Markov chain underlying the considered queueing system and derive its ergodicity condition. The system state distribution as well as the orbit size and the system size distributions are obtained in terms of their generating functions. These generating functions yield exact expressions for different performance measures. Besides, the stochastic decomposition property and the corresponding continuous-time queueing system are investigated. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effect of priority and impatience on several performance characteristics of the system.     

An M/M/1 retrial queue with unreliable server

We analyze an unreliable M/M/1 retrial queue with infinite-capacity orbit and normal queue. Retrial customers do not rejoin the normal queue but repeatedly attempt to access the server at i.i.d. intervals until it is found functioning and idle. We provide stability conditions as well as several stochastic decomposability results.     

A survey on retrial queues

Queueing systems in which arriving customers who find all servers and waiting positions (if any) occupied may retry for service after a period of time are called retrial queues or queues with repeated orders. Retrial queues have been widely used to model many problems in telephone switching systems, telecommunication networks, computer networks and computer systems. In this paper, we discuss some important retrial queueing models and present their major analytic results and the techniques used. Our concentration is mainly on single-server queueing models. Multi-server queueing models are briefly discussed, and interested readers are referred to the original papers for details. We also discuss the stochastic decomposition property which commonly holds in retrial queues and the relationship between the retrial queue and the queue with server vacations.     

A discrete-time priority queue with two-class customers and bulk services

This paper studies the behavior of a discrete queueing system which accepts synchronized arrivals and provides synchronized services. The number of arrivals occurring at an arriving point may follow any arbitrary discrete distribution possessing finite first moment and convergent probability generating function in ¦ z ¦ 1 + with > 0. The system is equipped with an infinite buffer and one or more servers operating in synchronous mode. Service discipline may or may not be prioritized. Results such as the probability generating function of queue occupancy, average queue length, system throughput, and delay are derived in this paper. The validity of the results is also verified by computer simulations.The work reported in this paper was supported by the National Science Council of the Republic of China under Grant NSC1981-0404-E002-04.