The service system M/M R /∞ with impatient customers

An infinite server queue is considered where customers have a choice of individual service or batch service. Transient results have been obtained for the first two moments of the system size distribution. Waiting time distribution is important in system evaluation and steady state results are obtained.     

An approximation analysis for an assembly-like queueing system with time-constraint items

We study an assembly-like queueing system one of whose queues has items with generally distributed time-constraints, where this system has a single server providing services using each item individually. It is well-known that analysis of a queueing system which has items with time-constraint (i.e., impatient items) is difficult since the analytical model must involve all the departure times of these impatient items. We therefore propose to employ the techniques of Whitt’s approximation and show the method for obtaining the stationary distribution of the model. Through some simulation experiments, we discuss the validation of our approximation model, and show that the approximation is accurate in various kinds of situations (e.g., service time distribution and the number of queues).     

Intertemporal service pricing with strategic customers

We study a two-period intertemporal pricing game in a single-server service system with forward-looking strategic customers who make their purchase decision based on current information and anticipated future gains. Subgame perfect Nash equilibrium (SPNE) prices are derived. A comparison between revenue-maximizing equilibrium prices and welfare-maximizing equilibrium prices is conducted and the impact on the system’s performance of misunderstanding customers’ type is evaluated.     

Bad luck when joining the shortest queue

A frequent observation in service systems with queues in parallel is that customers in other queues tend to be served faster than those in one’s own queue. This paper quantifies the probability that one’s service would have started earlier if one had joined another queue than the queue that was actually chosen, for exponential multiserver systems with queues in parallel in which customers join one of the shortest queues upon arrival and in which jockeying is not possible.     

On an M (X)/G/1 Retrial System with Two Types of Search of Customers from the Orbit

Single server retrial queueing models in which customers arrive according to a batch Poisson process are considered here. An arriving batch, finding the server busy, enters an orbit. Otherwise, one customer from the arriving batch enters for service immediately while the rest join the orbit. The customers from the orbit (the orbital customers) try to reach the server subsequently with the inter-retrial times exponentially distributed. Additionally, at each service completion epoch, two different search mechanisms, that is, type I and type II search, to bring the orbital customers by the system to service, are switched on. Thus, when the server is idle, a competition takes place among primary customers, customers who come by retrial and by two types of searches. The type I search selects a single customer whereas the type II search considers a batch of customers from the orbit. Depending on the maximum size of the batch being considered for service by a type II search, two cases are addressed here. In the first case, no restriction on batch size is assumed, whereas in the second case, maximum size of the batch is restricted to a pre-assigned value. We call the resulting models as model 1 and model 2 respectively. In all service modes other than type II search, only a single customer is qualified for service. Service times of the four types of customers, namely, primary, repeated, and those who come by two types of searches are arbitrarily distributed (with different distributions which are independent of each other). Steady state analysis is performed and stability conditions are established. A control problem for model 2 is considered and numerical illustrations are provided.     

Equilibrium queueing strategies of two types of customers in a two-server queue

We consider a single queue with two identical servers and two types of customers. The high-type customer is more delay-sensitive but brings less workload to the system than the low-type customer. We obtain the equilibrium queueing strategy for each type of customers.     

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.     

On the Number of Lost Customers in Stationary Loss Systems in the Light Traffic Case

For the stationary loss systems M/M/m/K and GI/M/m/K, we study two quantities: the number of lost customers during the time interval (0,t] (the first system only), and the number of lost customers among the first n customers to arrive (both systems). We derive explicit bounds for the total variation distances between the distributions of these quantities and compound Poisson–geometric distributions. The bounds are small in the light traffic case, i.e., when the loss of a customer is a rare event. To prove our results, we show that the studied quantities can be interpreted as accumulated rewards of stationary renewal reward processes, embedded into the queue length process or the process of queue lengths immediately before arrivals of new customers, and apply general results by Erhardsson on compound Poisson approximation for renewal reward processes.     

A multiserver retrial queue: regenerative stability analysis

We consider a multiserver retrial GI/G/m queue with renewal input of primary customers, interarrival time τ with rate , service time S, and exponential retrial times of customers blocked in the orbit. In the model, an arriving primary customer enters the system and gets a service immediately if there is an empty server, otherwise (if all m servers are busy) he joins the orbit and attempts to enter the system after an exponentially distributed time. Exploiting the regenerative structure of the (non-Markovian) stochastic process representing the total number of customers in the system (in service and in orbit), we determine stability conditions of the system and some of its variations. More precisely, we consider a discrete-time process embedded at the input instants and prove that if and , then the regeneration period is aperiodic with a finite mean. Consequently, this queue has a stationary distribution under the same conditions as a standard multiserver queue GI/G/m with infinite buffer. To establish this result, we apply a renewal technique and a characterization of the limiting behavior of the forward renewal time in the (renewal) process of regenerations. The key step in the proof is to show that the service discipline is asymptotically work-conserving as the orbit size increases. Included are extensions of this stability analysis to continuous-time processes, a retrial system with impatient customers, a system with a general retrial rate, and a system with finite buffer for waiting primary customers. We also consider the regenerative structure of a multi-dimensional Markov process describing the system. This work is supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research under grants 04-07-90115 and 07-07-00088.     

面向时间敏感型顾客的服务系统速率-成本决策模型

针对一类客户资源集中、时间敏感性强、质量要求高的服务系统决策问题,建立M/M/1排队模型,分析稳定状态下顾客参与服务系统的均衡到达率、服务价格之间的关系以及服务商最优速率.结果表明:服务速率与顾客单位时间等待成本无关,而均衡到达率和服务价格均与顾客单位等待成本呈负相关;当基准服务质量达到一定水平时,企业要提高利润就要追加投资,降低顾客等待效用,提高顾客满意度.