A duality relation for busy cycles inGI/G/1 queues

Using a generalization of the classical ballot theorem, Niu and Cooper [7] established a duality relation between the joint distribution of several variables associated with the busy cycle inM/G/1 (with a modified first service) and the corresponding joint distribution of several related variables in its dualGI/M/1. In this note, we generalize this duality relation toGI/G/1 queues with modified first services; this clarifies the original result, and shows that the generalized ballot theorem is superfluous for the duality relation.     

TheM/G/1 queue with processor sharing and its relation to a feedback queue

The central model of this paper is anM/M/1 queue with a general probabilistic feedback mechanism. When a customer completes his ith service, he departs from the system with probability 1–p(i) and he cycles back with probabilityp(i). The mean service time of each customer is the same for each cycle. We determine the joint distribution of the successive sojourn times of a tagged customer at his loops through the system. Subsequently we let the mean service time at each loop shrink to zero and the feedback probabilities approach one in such a way that the mean total required service time remains constant. The behaviour of the feedback queue then approaches that of anM/G/1 processor sharing queue, different choices of the feedback probabilities leading to different service time distributions in the processor sharing model. This is exploited to analyse the sojourn time distribution in theM/G/1 queue with processor sharing.Some variants are also considered, viz., anM/M/1 feedback queue with additional customers who are always present, and anM/G/1 processor sharing queue with feedback.     

Analyticity of single-server queues in light traffic

Recently, several methods have been proposed to approximate performance measures of queueing systems based on their light traffic derivatives, e.g., the MacLaurin expansion, the Padé approximation, and interpolation with heavy traffic limits. The key condition required in all these approximations is that the performance measures be analytic when the arrival rates equal to zero. In this paper, we study theGI/G/1 queue. We show that if the c.d.f. of the interarrival time can be expressed as a MacLaurin series over [0, ), then the mean steady-state system time of a job is indeed analytic when the arrival rate to the queue equals to zero. This condition is satisfied by phase-type distributions but not c.d.f.'s without support [0, ), such as uniform and shifted exponential distributions. In fact, we show through two examples that the analyticity does not hold for most commonly used distribution functions which do not satisfy this condition.     

On the complete monotonicity of the waiting time density in some GI/G/k systems

In this note the complete monotonicity of the waiting time density in GI/G/k queues is proved under the assumption that the service time density is completely monotone. This is an extension of Keilson's [3] result for M/G/1 queues. We also provide another proof of the result that complete monotonicity is preserved by geometric compounding.     

Stability and queueing time analysis of a reader-writer queue with alternating exhaustive priorities

This paper considers a reader-writer queue with alternating exhaustive priorities. The system can process an unlimited number of readers simultaneously. However, writers have to be processed one at a time. Both readers and writers arrive according to Poisson processes. Writer and reader service times are general iid random variables. There is infinite waiting room for both. The alternating exhaustive priority policy operates as follows. Assume the system is initially idle. The first arriving customer initiates service for the class (readers or writers) to which it belongs. Once processing begins for a given class of customers, this class is served exhaustively, i.e. until no members of that class are left in the system. At this point, if customers of the other class are in the queue, priority switches to this class, and it is served exhaustively. This system is analyzed to produce a stability condition and Laplace-Stieltjes transforms (LSTs) for the steady state queueing times of readers and writers. An example is also given.     

Asymptotic expansions for waiting time probabilities in an M/G/1 queue with long-tailed service time

We consider anM/G/1 queue with FCFS queue discipline. We present asymptotic expansions for tail probabilities of the stationary waiting time when the service time distribution is longtailed and we discuss an extension of our methods to theM ^[x]/G/1 queue with batch arrivals.     

The PH/PH/1 queue at epochs of queue size change

The PH/PH/1 queue is considered at embedded epochs which form the union of arrival and departure instants. This provides us with a new, compact representation as a quasi-birth-and-death process, where the order of the blocks is the sum of the number of phases in the arrival and service time distributions. It is quite easy to recover, from this new embedded process, the usual distributions at epochs of arrival, or epochs of departure, or at arbitrary instants. The quasi-birth-and-death structure allows for efficient algorithmic procedures. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A bibliographical guide to the analysis of retrial queues through matrix analytic techniques

This paper provides a bibliographical guide to researchers who are interested in the analysis of retrial queues through matrix analytic methods. It includes an author index and a subject index of research papers written in English and published in journals or collective publications, as well as some papers accepted for a forthcoming publication.     

Performance analysis of discrete-time queue GI/G/1 with negative arrivals

In this paper, we consider a discrete-time GI/G/1 queueing model with negative arrivals. By deriving the probability generating function of actual service time of ordinary customers, we reduced the analysis to an equivalent discrete-time GI/G/1 queueing model without negative arrival, and obtained the probability generating function of buffer contents and random customer delay.     

Busy Periods of Poisson Arrival Queues with Loss

We consider two queues with loss, one is the finite dam with Poisson arrivals and the other is the M/G/1 queue with impatient customers. We use the method of Kolmogorov's backward differential equation and construct a type of renewal equation to obtain the Laplace transform of busy(or wet) period in both queues. As a consequence, we provide the explicit forms of expected busy periods.     

Stationary distribution of queue length in G / M / 1 queue with two-stage service policy

We consider a G / M / 1 queue with two-stage service policy. The server starts to serve with rate of μ₁ customers per unit time until the number of customers in the system reaches λ. At this moment, the service rate is changed to that of μ₂ customers per unit time and this rate continues until the system is empty. We obtain the stationary distribution of the number of customers in the system.     

Clearing Models for M/G/1 Queues

We consider M/G/1-type queueing systems with disasters, occurring at certain random times and causing an instantaneous removal of the entire residual workload from the system. After such a clearing, the system is assumed to be ready to start working again immediately. We consider clearings at deterministic equidistant times, at random times and at crossings of some prespecified level, and derive the stationary distribution of the workload process for these clearing times and some of their combinations.     

A reader-writer queue with reader preference

This paper considers a reader-writer queue with reader preference. The system can process an unlimited number of readers simultaneously. However, writers have to be processed one at a time. Readers are given non-preemptive priority over writers. Both readers and writers arrive according to Poisson processes (PP) and have general independent service times. There is infinite waiting room for both. This system is analyzed to produce stability conditions. The analysis uses anM/G/ queue busy period to model readers, followed by a modifiedM/G/1 queue to model the entire system. Finally, results are presented for the expected wait-in-queue times for the readers and writers. The paper ends with an example.This work was done while the author was visiting the IBM Corporation, Networking Systems, RTP, NC 27709, USA.     

Simple analysis of a fluid queue driven by an M/M/1 queue

In this note we consider the fluid queue driven by anM/M/1 queue as analysed by Virtamo and Norros [Queueing Systems 16 (1994) 373–386]. We show that the stationary buffer content in this model can be easily analysed by looking at embedded time points. This approach gives the stationary buffer content distribution in terms of the modified Bessel function of the first kind of order one. By using a suitable integral representation for this Bessel function we show that our results coincide with the ones of Virtamo and Norros.     

Stochastic bounds for a polling system

In this note we consider two queueing systems: a symmetric polling system with gated service at allN queues and with switchover times, and a single-server single-queue model with one arrival stream of ordinary customers andN additional permanently present customers. It is assumed that the combined arrival process at the queues of the polling system coincides with the arrival process of the ordinary customers in the single-queue model, and that the service time and switchover time distributions of the polling model coincide with the service time distributions of the ordinary and permanent customers, respectively, in the single-queue model. A complete equivalence between both models is accomplished by the following queue insertion of arriving customers. In the single-queue model, an arriving ordinary customer occupies with probabilityp _i a position at the end of the queue section behind theith permanent customer,i = l, ...,N. In the cyclic polling model, an arriving customer with probabilityp _i joins the end of theith queue to be visited by the server, measured from its present position.For the single-queue model we prove that, if two queue insertion distributions {p _{i, i} = l, ...,N} and {q _{i, i} = l, ...,N} are stochastically ordered, then also the workload and queue length distributions in the corresponding two single-queue versions are stochastically ordered. This immediately leads to equivalent stochastic orderings in polling models.Finally, the single-queue model with Poisson arrivals andp ₁ = 1 is studied in detail.Part of the research of the first author has been supported by the Esprit BRA project QMIPS.     

Some results on a generalized M/G/1 feedback queue with negative customers

This paper deals with a generalized M/G/1 feedback queue in which customers are either “positive" or “negative". We assume that the service time distribution of a positive customer who initiates a busy period is G _e (x) and all subsequent positive customers in the same busy period have service time drawn independently from the distribution G _b (x). The server is idle until a random number N of positive customers accumulate in the queue. Following the arrival of the N-th positive customer, the server serves exhaustively the positive customers in the queue and then a new idle period commences. This queueing system is a generalization of the conventional N-policy queue with N a constant number. Explicit expressions for the probability generating function and mean of the system size of positive customers are obtained under steady-state condition. Various vacation models are discussed as special cases. The effects of various parameters on the mean system size and the probability that the system is empty are also analysed numerically. AMS Subject Classification: Primary: 60 K 25 · Secondary: 60 K 20, 90 B 22     

On balking from an empty queue

The intuition while observing the economy of queueing systems, is that one’s motivation to join the system, decreases with its level of congestion. Here we present a queueing model where sometimes the opposite is the case. The point of departure is the standard first-come first-served single server queue with Poisson arrivals. Customers commence service immediately if upon their arrival the server is idle. Otherwise, they are informed if the queue is empty or not. Then, they have to decide whether to join or not. We assume that the customers are homogeneous and when they consider whether to join or not, they assess their queueing costs against their reward due to service completion. As the whereabouts of customers interact, we look for the (possibly mixed) join/do not join Nash equilibrium strategy, a strategy that if adopted by all, then under the resulting steady-state conditions, no one has any incentive not to follow it oneself. We show that when the queue is empty then depending on the service distribution, both ‘avoid the crowd’ (ATC) and ‘follow the crowd’ (FTC) scenarios (as well as none-of-the-above) are possible. When the queue is not empty, the situation is always that of ATC. Also, we show that under Nash equilibrium it is possible (depending on the service distribution) that the joining probability when the queue is empty is smaller than it is when the queue is not empty. This research was supported by The Israel Science Foundation Grant No. 237/02.     

Variance comparison between infinitesimal perturbation analysis and likelihood ratio estimators to stochastic gradient

We theoretically compare variances between the Infinitesimal Perturbation Analysis (IPA) estimator and the Likelihood Ratio (LR) estimator to Monte Carlo gradient for stochastic systems. The results presented in Cui et al. (2020) [2] on variance comparison between these two estimators are substantially improved. We also prove a practically interesting result that the IPA estimators to European vanilla and arithmetic Asian options' Delta, respectively, have smaller variance when the underlying asset's return process is independent with the initial price and square integrable.     

The Virtual Waiting Time of the M/G/1 Queue with Impatient Customers

The M/G/1 queue with impatient customers is studied. The complete formula of the limiting distribution of the virtual waiting time is derived explicitly. The expected busy period of the queue is also obtained by using a martingale argument.     

A note on the optimality of the N- and D-policies for the M/G/1 queue

This note considers the N- and D-policies for the M/G/1 queue. We concentrate on the true relationship between the optimal N- and D-policies when the cost function is based on the expected number of customers in the system.