Optimization and sensitivity analysis of controlling arrivals in the queueing system with single working vacation

This paper analyzes the F-policy M/M/1/K queueing system with working vacation and an exponential startup time. The F-policy deals with the issue of controlling arrivals to a queueing system, and the server requires a startup time before allowing customers to enter the system. For the queueing systems with working vacation, the server can still provide service to customers rather than completely stop the service during a vacation period. The matrix-analytic method is applied to develop the steady-state probabilities, and then obtain several system characteristics. We construct the expected cost function and formulate an optimization problem to find the minimum cost. The direct search method and Quasi-Newton method are implemented to determine the optimal system capacity K, the optimal threshold F and the optimal service rates (μ_B,μ_V) at the minimum cost. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to investigate the effect of changes in the system parameters on the expected cost function. Finally, numerical examples are provided for illustration purpose.     

A recursive method for the F-policy G/M/1/K queueing system with an exponential startup time

This paper deals with the optimal control of a finite capacity G/M/1 queueing system combined the F-policy and an exponential startup time before start allowing customers in the system. The F-policy queueing problem investigates the most common issue of controlling arrival to a queueing system. We provide a recursive method, using the supplementary variable technique and treating the supplementary variable as the remaining interarrival time, to develop the steady-state probability distribution of the number of customers in the system. We illustrate a recursive method by presenting three simple examples for exponential, 3-stage Erlang, and deterministic interarrival time distributions, respectively. A cost model is developed to determine the optimal management F-policy at minimum cost. We use an efficient Maple computer program to determine the optimal operating F-policy and some system performance measures. Sensitivity analysis is also studied.     

The performance measures and randomized optimization for an unreliable server M/G/1 vacation system

This paper examines an M^[x]/G/1 queueing system with a randomized vacation policy and at most J vacations. Whenever the system is empty, the server immediately takes a vacation. If there is at least one customer found waiting in the queue upon returning from a vacation, the server will be immediately activated for service. Otherwise, if no customers are waiting for service at the end of a vacation, the server either remains idle with probability p or leaves for another vacation with probability 1 − p. This pattern continues until the number of vacations taken reaches J. If the system is empty by the end of the Jth vacation, the server becomes idle in the system. Whenever one or more customers arrive at server idle state, the server immediately starts providing service for the arrivals. Assume that the server may meet an unpredictable breakdown according to a Poisson process and the repair time has a general distribution. For such a system, we derive the distributions of important system characteristics, such as system size distribution at a random epoch and at a departure epoch, system size distribution at busy period initiation epoch, the distributions of idle period, busy period, etc. Finally, a cost model is developed to determine the joint suitable parameters (p^∗, J^∗) at a minimum cost, and some numerical examples are presented for illustrative purpose.     

Comparison of two randomized policy M/G/1 queues with second optional service, server breakdown and startup

The problem addressed in this paper is to compare the minimum cost of the two randomized control policies in the M/G/1 queueing system with an unreliable server, a second optional service, and general startup times. All arrived customers demand the first required service, and only some of the arrived customers demand a second optional service. The server needs a startup time before providing the first required service until the system becomes empty. After all customers are served in the queue, the server immediately takes a vacation and the system operates the (T, p)-policy or (p, N)-policy. For those two policies, the expected cost functions are established to determine the joint optimal threshold values of (T, p) and (p, N), respectively. In addition, we obtain the explicit closed form of the joint optimal solutions for those two policies. Based on the minimal cost, we show that the optimal (p, N)-policy indeed outperforms the optimal (T, p)-policy. Numerical examples are also presented for illustrative purposes.     

Optimal control of the N policy M/G/1 queueing system with server breakdowns and general startup times

This paper deals with an N policy M/G/1 queueing system with a single removable and unreliable server whose arrivals form a Poisson process. Service times, repair times, and startup times are assumed to be generally distributed. When the queue length reaches N(N ? 1), the server is immediately turned on but is temporarily unavailable to serve the waiting customers. The server needs a startup time before providing service until there are no customers in the system. We analyze various system performance measures and investigate some designated known expected cost function per unit time to determine the optimal threshold N at a minimum cost. Sensitivity analysis is also studied.     

Cost optimization of a repairable M/G/1 queue with a randomized policy and single vacation

This paper deals with the (p, N)-policy M/G/1 queue with an unreliable server and single vacation. Immediately after all of the customers in the system are served, the server takes single vacation. As soon as N customers are accumulated in the queue, the server is activated for services with probability p or deactivated with probability (1 − p). When the server returns from vacation and the system size exceeds N, the server begins serving the waiting customers. If the number of customers waiting in the queue is less than N when the server returns from vacation, he waits in the system until the system size reaches or exceeds N. It is assumed that the server is subject to break down according to a Poisson process and the repair time obeys a general distribution. This paper derived the system size distribution for the system described above at a stationary point of time. Various system characteristics were also developed. We then constructed a total expected cost function per unit time and applied the Tabu search method to find the minimum cost. Some numerical results are also given for illustrative purposes.     

Maximizing throughput in queueing networks with limited flexibility

We study a queueing network where customers go through several stages of processing, with the class of a customer used to indicate the stage of processing. The customers are serviced by a set of flexible servers, i.e., a server is capable of serving more than one class of customers and the sets of classes that the servers are capable of serving may overlap. We would like to choose an assignment of servers that achieves the maximal capacity of the given queueing network, where the maximal capacity is λ^∗ if the network can be stabilized for all arrival rates λ < λ^∗ and cannot possibly be stabilized for all λ > λ^∗. We examine the situation where there is a restriction on the number of servers that are able to serve a class, and reduce the maximal capacity objective to a maximum throughput allocation problem of independent interest: the total discrete capacity constrained problem (TDCCP). We prove that solving TDCCP is in general NP-complete, but we also give exact or approximation algorithms for several important special cases and discuss the implications for building limited flexibility into a system.     

The randomized vacation policy for a batch arrival queue

This paper examines an M^[x]/G/1${\text{M}}^{[\text{x}]}/\text{G}/1$ queueing system with a randomized vacation policy and at most J vacations. Whenever the system is empty, the server immediately takes a vacation. If there is at least one customer found waiting in the queue upon returning from a vacation, the server will be immediately activated for service. Otherwise, if no customers are waiting for service at the end of a vacation, the server either remains idle with probability p   or leaves for another vacation with probability 1-p$1-p$. This pattern continues until the number of vacations taken reaches J. If the system is empty by the end of the J  th vacation, the server is dormant idly in the system. If there is one or more customers arrive at server idle state, the server immediately starts his services for the arrivals. For such a system, we derive the distributions of important characteristics, such as system size distribution at a random epoch and at a departure epoch, system size distribution at busy period initiation epoch, idle period and busy period, etc. Finally, a cost model is developed to determine the joint suitable parameters (p^∗,J^∗)$(p^{\ast }\text{,}{J}^{\ast })$ at a minimum cost, and some numerical examples are presented for illustrative purpose.     

LSQR iterative common symmetric solutions to matrix equations AXB = E and CXD = F

A new matrix based iterative method is presented to compute common symmetric solution or common symmetric least-squares solution of the pair of matrix equations AXB = E and CXD = F. By this iterative method, for any initial matrix X₀, a solution X^∗ can be obtained within finite iteration steps if exact arithmetic was used, and the solution X^∗ with the minimum Frobenius norm can be obtained by choosing a special kind of initial matrix. In addition, the unique nearest common symmetric solution or common symmetric least-squares solution to given matrix in Frobenius norm can be obtained by first finding the minimum Frobenius norm common symmetric solution or common symmetric least-squares solution of the new pair of matrix equations. The given numerical examples show that the matrix based iterative method proposed in this paper has faster convergence than the iterative methods proposed in [1] and [2] to solve the same problems.     

A geometric process maintenance model with preventive repair

In this paper, a geometric process maintenance model with preventive repair is studied. A maintenance policy (T, N) is applied by which the system will be repaired whenever it fails or its operating time reaches T whichever occurs first, and the system will be replaced by a new and identical one following the Nth failure. The long-run average cost per unit time is determined. An optimal policy (T^∗, N^∗) could be determined numerically or analytically for minimizing the average cost. A new class of lifetime distribution which takes into account the effect of preventive repair is studied that is applied to determine the optimal policy (T^∗, N^∗).     

Minimal ranks of some quaternion matrix expressions with applications

Suppose that p(X, Y) = A − BX − X^(∗)B^(∗) − CYC^(∗) and q(X, Y) = A − BX + X^(∗)B^(∗) − CYC^(∗) are quaternion matrix expressions, where A is persymmetric or perskew-symmetric. We in this paper derive the minimal rank formula of p(X, Y) with respect to pair of matrices X and Y = Y^(∗), and the minimal rank formula of q(X, Y) with respect to pair of matrices X and Y = −Y^(∗). As applications, we establish some necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the general (persymmetric or perskew-symmetric) solutions to some well-known linear quaternion matrix equations. The expressions are also given for the corresponding general solutions of the matrix equations when the solvability conditions are satisfied. At the same time, some useful consequences are also developed.     

Workload and Waiting Time Analyses of MAP/G/1 Queue under D-policy

We study the workload (unfinished work) and the waiting time of the queueing system with MAP arrivals under D-policy. The D-policy stipulates that the idle server begin to serve the customers only when the sum of the service times of all waiting customers exceeds some fixed threshold D. We first set up the system equations for workload and obtain the steady-state distributions of workloads at an arbitrary idle and busy points of time. We then proceed to obtain the waiting time distribution of an arbitrary customer based on the workload results. The M/G/1/D-policy queue will be investigated as a special case.     

Analysis of the GI/Geo/1 queue with N-policy

We consider a discrete-time single server N  -policy GI/Geo/1$\mathit{GI}/\mathit{Geo}/1$ queueing system. The server stops servicing whenever the system becomes empty, and resumes its service as soon as the number of waiting customers in the queue reaches N. Using an embedded Markov chain and a trial solution approach, the stationary queue length distribution at arrival epochs is obtained. Furthermore, we obtain the stationary queue length distribution at arbitrary epochs by using the preceding result and a semi-Markov process. The sojourn time distribution is also presented.     

A bifurcation theorem for the p-logistic equation

We consider a p-logistic equation with an equidiffusive reaction. Using variational methods and truncation techniques, we show that there is a critical parameter value λ^∗ > 0 such that for λ > λ^∗ the problem has a unique positive smooth solution, and for λ ∈ (0, λ^∗] the problem has no positive solution.     

Economic application in a finite capacity multi-channel queue with second optional channel

We consider a finite capacity M/M/R queue with second optional channel. The interarrival times of arriving customers follow an exponential distribution. The service times of the first essential channel and the second optional channel are assumed to follow an exponential distribution. As soon as the first essential service of a customer is completed, a customer may leave the system with probability (1 − θ) or may opt for the second optional service with probability θ (0 ? θ ? 1). Using the matrix-geometric method, we obtain the steady-state probability distributions and various system performance measures. A cost model is established to determine the optimal solutions at the minimum cost. Finally, numerical results are provided to illustrate how the direct search method and the tabu search can be applied to obtain the optimal solutions. Sensitivity analysis is also investigated.     

On disjoint range matrices

For a square complex matrix F and for F^∗ being its conjugate transpose, the class of matrices satisfying R(F)∩R(F^∗)={0}, where R(.) denotes range (column space) of a matrix argument, is investigated. Besides identifying a number of its properties, several functions of F, such as F+F^∗, (F:F^∗), FF^∗+F^∗F, and F-F^∗, are considered. Particular attention is paid to the Moore-Penrose inverses of those functions and projectors attributed to them. It is shown that some results scattered in the literature, whose complexity practically prevents them from being used to deal with real problems, can be replaced with much simpler expressions when the ranges of F and F^∗ are disjoint. Furthermore, as a by-product of the derived formulae, one obtains a variety of relevant facts concerning, for instance, rank and range.     

Convergence theorems for fixed points of uniformly continuous generalized Φ-hemi-contractive mappings

Let E be a real normed linear space, K be a nonempty subset of E and be a uniformly continuous generalized Φ-hemi-contractive mapping, i.e., , and there exist x^∗∈F(T) and a strictly increasing function , Φ(0)=0 such that for all x∈K, there exists j(x−x^∗)∈J(x−x^∗) such that

〈Tx−x^∗,j(x−x^∗)〉?‖x−x^∗‖2−Φ(‖x−x^∗‖).     

An optimal replacement policy for a multistate degenerative simple system

In this paper, a degenerative simple system (i.e. a degenerative one-component system with one repairman) with k + 1 states, including k failure states and one working state, is studied. Assume that the system after repair is not “as good as new”, and the degeneration of the system is stochastic. Under these assumptions, we consider a new replacement policy T based on the system age. Our problem is to determine an optimal replacement policy T^∗ such that the average cost rate (i.e. the long-run average cost per unit time) of the system is minimized. The explicit expression of the average cost rate is derived, the corresponding optimal replacement policy can be determined, the explicit expression of the minimum of the average cost rate can be found and under some mild conditions the existence and uniqueness of the optimal policy T^∗ can be proved, too. Further, we can show that the repair model for the multistate system in this paper forms a general monotone process repair model which includes the geometric process repair model as a special case. We can also show that the repair model in the paper is equivalent to a geometric process repair model for a two-state degenerative simple system in the sense that they have the same average cost rate and the same optimal policy. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the theoretical results of this model.     

The Analysis of a General Input Queue with N Policy and Exponential Vacations

This paper studies a single removable server in a G/M/1 queueing system with finite capacity where the server applies an N policy and takes multiple vacations when the system is empty. We provide a recursive method, using the supplementary variable technique and treating the supplementary variable as the remaining interarrival time, to develop the steady-state probability distributions of the number of customers in the system. The method is illustrated analytically for exponential and deterministic interarrival time distributions. We establish the distributions of the number of customers in the queue at pre-arrival epochs and at arbitrary epochs, as well as the distributions of the waiting time and the busy period.