A two-class discrete-time queueing model with two dedicated servers and global FCFS service discipline

This paper considers a simple discrete-time queueing model with two types (classes) of customers (types 1 and 2) each having their own dedicated server (servers A and B resp.). New customers enter the system according to a general independent arrival process, i.e., the total numbers of arrivals during consecutive time slots are i.i.d. random variables with arbitrary distribution. Service times are deterministically equal to 1 slot each. The system uses a “global FCFS” service discipline, i.e., all arriving customers are accommodated in one single FCFS queue, regardless of their types. As a consequence of the “global FCFS” rule, customers of one type may be blocked by customers of the other type, in that they may be unable to reach their dedicated server even at times when this server is idle, i.e., the system is basically non-workconserving. One major aim of the paper is to estimate the negative impact of this phenomenon on the queueing performance of the system, in terms of the achievable throughput, the system occupancy, the idle probability of each server and the delay. As it is clear that customers of different types hinder each other more as they tend to arrive in the system more clustered according to class, the degree of “class clustering” in the arrival process is explicitly modeled in the paper and its very direct impact on the performance measures is revealed. The motivation of our work are systems where this kind of blocking is encountered, such as input-queueing network switches or road splits.     

A two-class global FCFS discrete-time queueing model with arbitrary-length constant service times

We analyze a discrete-time queueing model where two types of customers, each having their own dedicated server, are accommodated in one single FCFS queue. Service times are deterministically equal to \(s \ge 1\) time slots each. New customers enter the system according to a general independent arrival process, but the types of consecutive customers may be nonindependent. As a result, arriving customers may (or may not) have the tendency to cluster according to their types, which may lead to more (or less) blocking of one type by the opposite type. The paper reveals the impact of this blocking phenomenon on the achievable throughput, the (average) system content, the (average) customer delay and the (average) unfinished work. The paper extends the results of earlier work where either the service times were assumed to be constant and equal to 1 slot each, or the customers all belonged to the same class. Our results show that, in case of Poisson arrivals, for given traffic intensity, the system-content distribution is insensitive to the length (s) of the service times, but the (mean) delay and the (mean) unfinished work in the system are not. In case of bursty arrivals, we find that all the performance measures are affected by the length (s) of the service times, for given traffic intensity.     

Approximation of throughput in tandem queues with multiple servers and blocking

In this paper, we develop an approximation method for throughput in tandem queues with multiple independent reliable servers at each stage and finite buffers between service stations. We consider the blocking after service (BAS) blocking protocol of each service stage. The service time distribution of each server is exponential. The approximation is based on the decomposition of the system into a set of coupled subsystems which are modeled by two-stage tandem queue with two buffers and are analyzed by using the level dependent quasi-birth-and-death (LDQBD) process.     

Expulsion and scheduling control for multiclass queues with heterogeneous servers

We consider an M/M/2 system with nonidentical servers and multiple classes of customers. Each customer class has its own reward rate and holding cost. We may assign priorities so that high priority customers may preempt lower priority customers on the servers. We give two models for which the optimal admission and scheduling policy for maximizing expected discounted profit is determined by a threshold structure on the number of customers of each type in the system. Surprisingly, the optimal thresholds do not depend on the specific numerical values of the reward rates and holding costs, making them relatively easy to determine in practice. Our results also hold when there is a finite buffer and when customers have independent random deadlines for service completion.     

Nonstationary queues with Interrrupted Poisson arrivals and unreliable/repairable servers

A queueing model having a nonstationary Interrupted Poisson arrival process (IPP(t)),s time-dependent exponential unreliable/repairable servers and finite capacityc is introduced, and an approximation method for analysis of it is developed and tested. Approximations are developed for the time-dependent queue length moments and the system viewpoint waiting time distributions and moments. The approximation involves state-space partitioning and numerically integrating partial-moment differential equations (PMDEs). Surrogate distribution approximations (SDA's) are used to close the system of PMDEs. The approximations allow for analysis using only (s + 1)(s + 6) differential equations for the queue length moments rather than the 2(c + 1)(s +1) equations required by the classic method of numerically integrating the full set of Kolmogorov-forward equations. Effectively hours of cpu time are reduced to minutes for even modest capacity systems. Approximations for waiting time distributions and moments are developed.This research was partially funded by National Science Foundation grant ECS-8404409.     

Analysis of nonpreemptive priority queues with multiple servers and two priority classes

In this paper, we model a priority multiserver queueing system with two priority classes. A high priority customer has nonpreemptive priority over low priority customers. The approaches for solving the problem are the state-reduction based variant of Kao, the modified boundary algorithm of Latouche, the logarithmic reduction algorithm of Latouche and Ramaswami, and the power-series method of Blanc. The objectives of this paper are to present a power-series implementation for the priority queue and to evaluate the relative efficiencies of alternative procedures to compute various performance characteristics. In the paper, we find that at times the logarithmic reduction algorithm may not perform as well as expected and the power-series approach can occasionally pose numerical difficulties.     

Waiting times in queues with relative priorities

This paper determines the mean waiting times for a single server multi-class queueing model with Poisson arrivals and relative priorities. If the server becomes idle, the probability that the next job is from class-i is proportional to the product between the number of class-i jobs present and their priority parameter.     

Pull-based load distribution among heterogeneous parallel servers: the case of multiple routers

The model is a service system, consisting of several large server pools. A server’s processing speed and buffer size (which may be finite or infinite) depend on the pool. The input flow of customers is split equally among a fixed number of routers, which must assign customers to the servers immediately upon arrival. We consider an asymptotic regime in which the total customer arrival rate and pool sizes scale to infinity simultaneously, in proportion to a scaling parameter n, while the number of routers remains fixed. We define and study a multi-router generalization of the pull-based customer assignment (routing) algorithm PULL, introduced in Stolyar (Queueing Syst 80(4): 341–361, 2015) for the single-router model. Under the PULL algorithm, when a server becomes idle it sends a “pull-message” to a randomly uniformly selected router; each router operates independently—it assigns an arriving customer to a server according to a randomly uniformly chosen available (at this router) pull-message, if there is any, or to a randomly uniformly selected server in the entire system otherwise. Under Markov assumptions (Poisson arrival process and independent exponentially distributed service requirements), and under subcritical system load, we prove asymptotic optimality of PULL: as \(n\rightarrow \infty \), the steady-state probability of an arriving customer experiencing blocking or waiting vanishes. Furthermore, PULL has an extremely low router–server message exchange rate of one message per customer. These results generalize some of the single-router results in Stolyar (2015).     

Limiting expectation time distribution for a critical load in a system with relative priority

A single-channel system with relative priority and a hyperexponential input stream is considered. The limiting distribution of the virtual expectation time for lowest-priority requests under conditions of a critical load is found.     

On the relationship between work load and waiting time in single server queues with batch inputs

The relationship between work load and waiting time in single server queues with batch inputs is discussed under a work-conserving service discipline. Based on a result of Brumelle, the relationship is newly presented especially under the preemptive-resume discipline. This relationship is applied to analyze batch Poisson input models.     

Inference and prediction in bulk arrival queues and queues with service in stages

This paper deals with the statistical analysis from a Bayesian point of view, of bulk arrival queues where the batch size is considered as a fixed constant. The focus is on prediction of the usual measures of performance of the system in the steady state. The probability generating function of the posterior predictive distribution of the number of customers in the system and the Laplace transform of the posterior predictive distribution of the waiting time in the system are obtained. Numerical inversion of these transforms is considered. Inference and prediction of its equivalent single queue with service in stages is also discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simultaneous determination of capacities and load in parallel M/M/1 queues

In this paper, we address an analytical model to simultaneously determine the processing capacity and load assigned to each processor in a multiple processor configuration within the framework of M/M/1 queues. A queueing optimization model is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem having linear constraints. We then propose an optimization algorithm that utilizes the special structure of the problem. To illustrate the applicability of our method, a small sample system has been solved.     

The busy period distribution in a closed tandem of queues

We derive the busy period distribution in a closed tandem of FCFS queues with general service times.     

The cycle time distribution in a cycle of Bernoulli servers in discrete time

In a cycle of Bernoulli servers in discrete time the equilibrium distribution for a customer's round-trip time is shown to be of product-form and is given in explicit formulas. The results are used to obtain the equilibrium flow time distribution for an open tandem of queues.     

Computation of the steady state distribution for multi-server retrial queues with phase type service process

We consider a multi-server retrial queueing system with the Batch Markovian Arrival Process and phase type service time distribution. Such a general queueing system suits for modeling and decision making in many real life objects including modern wireless communication networks. Behavior of such a system is described by the level dependent multi-dimensional Markov chain. Blocks of the generator of this chain, which is the block structured matrix of infinite size, can have large size if the number of servers is large and distribution of service time is not exponential. Due to this fact, the existing in literature algorithms allow to compute key performance measures of such a system only for a small number of servers. Here we describe the algorithm that allows to compute the stationary distribution of the system for larger number of servers and numerically illustrate its advantage. Importance of taking into account correlation in the arrival process is numerically demonstrated.     

Approximate analysis of non-stationary loss queues and networks of loss queues with general service time distributions

A Fixed Point Approximation (FPA) method has recently been suggested for non-stationary analysis of loss queues and networks of loss queues with Exponential service times. Deriving exact equations relating time-dependent mean numbers of busy servers to blocking probabilities, we generalize the FPA method to loss systems with general service time distributions. These equations are combined with associated formulae for stationary analysis of loss systems in steady state through a carried load to offered load transformation. The accuracy and speed of the generalized methods are illustrated through a wide set of examples.     

An approximation of known accuracy for single server queues with inhomogeneous arrival rate and continuous service time distribution

A practical method for obtaining approximate results for single server queues with inhomogeneous queues and continuous service time distribution is presented. The method is based on a discrete approximation to the continuous service time distribution. Exact results can be obtained for the corresponding queueing system with discrete service time distribution. These results are then corrected, and the likely accuracy of the corrected results is estimated. Four measures of performance are considered, idleness probability, mean and variance of number of customers in the system and virtual waiting time.