Characteristics of Queueing System

CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEUEING SYSTEM

V. Parimala Abstract
The Queueing theory provides predictions about waiting times,
the average number of waiting customers, the length of a busy period
and so forth. Queueing system with a removable service stations means
Lecturer, VLB Janagi that the decision maker can turn a service station on at the customer’s
Ammal College of Arts and
Science,Coimbatore- 32 arrival epoch or off at service completion epoch.

INTRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEUEING

The Queueing theory provides
predictions about waiting times, the
average number of waiting customers, the
length of a busy period and so forth.
These predictions help us to anticipate
situations and to take appropriate measures
to shorten the queues.
A further attractive feature of the
theory is the quite astonishing range of its
applications. Some of the more prominent
of these are telephone conversation,
machine repair, toll booths, taxi stands,
inventory control, the loading and
unloading of ships, scheduling patients in
hospital clinics, production flow and
applications in the computer field with
respect to program scheduling, etc.
SYSTEM
The basic characteristics of a
queueing system are the following.
Arrival Pattern
In most of the cases, the arrival
pattern is random and hence characterized
by a probability distribution. Arrivals may
occur in batches instead of one at a time.
In such case, the input is said to occur in
bulk or batch.
Service Pattern
The service mechanism describes the
manner in which service is rendered. The
units may be served either singly or in
batches. The time required for servicing a
unit or a batch is called service time.

A queueing system may be described Service time is also a random

as one having a service facility, at which
units of some kind (called customers)
arrive for service and whenever there are
more units in the system than the service
facility can handle simultaneously, a
queue or waiting line develops. The
waiting units take their turn for service
according to a preassigned rule and after
service they leave the system. Thus, the
input to the system consists of the
customers demanding service and the
output is the serviced customers.
variable in most of the cases, and
represented by a probability distribution.
The distribution describes the rate at
which the customers are served per unit of
time or the time required to serve a
customer or a batch. The service rate or
service time is conditioned on the fact that
the system is not empty.
In case of batch service, the service
system is termed as bulk service system.
There could be a number of policies or
rules, according to which batches for bulk

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 V. Parimala
service may be formed. Neuts has
introduced a general bulk service rule.
Under this rule, a server starts service only
if atleast ‘a’ customers (quorum) are
present in the queue, and the maximum
capacity is ‘b’ customers. If the queue
length is more than ‘a’ but less than ‘b’,
the entire queue is taken up; If there are
more than b, then the server accepts the
first ‘b’ units. The late arrivals are not
allowed to join the on going service. This
rule is called the general bulk service rule.
Queue Discipline
Queue discipline refers to the manner
by which the customers are selected for
service when the queue has been formed.
The most common discipline that can be
observed in every day life is first in first
out (FIFO). Some others in common usage
are last in first out (LIFO); selection for
service in random order independent of the
time of arrival to the queue (SIRO) etc. In
some cases, priority discipline is followed.
This discipline allows priority in service to
some customers in relation to other
customers waiting in queue. There are
two general situations in priority
discipline. They are (i) preemptive
priority and (ii) Non-preemptive priority.
System Capacity
The system may have either a limited
or an unlimited capacity for holding
customers. The source from which the
customers come may be finite or infinite.
In some cases, it is important to limit the
length of the queue to some predetermined
capacity. In other cases, the capacity can
be considered to be infinite. Some of the
queueing processes admit the physical
limitations to the amount of waiting room,
so that when the waiting line reaches a
certain length, no further customers are
Cauvery Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2, January 2008
allowed to enter until space becomes
available by a service completion. Such
system with a finite limit to the maximum
queue size is called finite queueing
system.
Service Channels
Queueing system may have several
service channels to provide service. These
service channels may be arranged in
parallel or in series or as a more complex
combination of both, depending on the
design of the system’s service mechanism.
In parallel channels, a number of
channels provide identical service
facilities, so that several customers may be
served simultaneously. In case of series
channels, a customer must pass
successively through the ordered channels,
before service is completed.
A queueing system is called single
server model, when the system has one
server only and when the system has two
or more parallel servers, it is known as
multi server model.
Markovian Queueing Models
Queueing models with exponential
inter-arrival times and exponential service
time are called Markovian queueing
models. Markovian queueing models are
usually solved by:
i. Difference-differential equations
method, using Rouche’s theorem and
generating functions and
ii. Neuts Matrix-geometric algorithm.
Non Markovian Queueing Models
Queues in which inter-arrival and for
service time distributions are other than
exponential are known as Non-Markovian
122
 Characteristics of Queueing System
queues. Since these systems do not have
memoryless property, the study of Non-
Markovian system is much more
complicated.
Server’s Vacation
From practical consideration, it may
not always be worthwhile to keep server
unnecessarily idle. In such situations, the
server may utilize his idle time in a useful
and optimal way to perform additional
jobs or for preventive maintenance work,
if the server is a machine and it is termed
as the server’s vacation. The following
are the some instances of server’s
vacation.
Repeated Vacation
In case of bulk service models, a
server on completion of a service will start
servicing again, if the system has the
minimum number of customers required to
start the service. Otherwise, the server
will withdraw from the system for a
vacation. On returning from a vacation, if
the server finds less than the required
number of customers, he may immediately
take another vacation. He will continue in
this manner, until he finds, upon returning
from a vacation, the required number of
waiting customers.
Single Vacation
The assumptions are same as those of
repeated vacations except that, even if the
server finds less than the minimum
number of customers required for service,
when he returns from a vacations, he stays
in the system awaiting the queue length to
reach the minimum number for starting his
next service.
The other types of vacation in the
literature are exceptional first vacation,
Cauvery Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2, January 2008
grand vacation, random vacation, limited
service vacation, etc.
Erlangian Distribution
The Erlang distribution itself is of
course non-Markovian. One can readily
see that the sum of k independent
identically distributed exponential random
variables with mean 1/kμ yields an Erland
type-k distribution. The relation of the
Erlang to exponential distributions also
allows us to describe models where the
service (or arrivals) may be a series of
identical phases. For example, suppose, in
performing a laboratory test, the
technician must perform four steps, each
taking the same mean time (say 1/4μ),
with the times distributed exponentially.
METHODOLOGY
The Markovian queueing models are
always considered under two categories
1. transient state 2.steady state.
If the probability distributions are
time dependent then the probabilities are
said to be in transient state and if the
distribution is independent of time they are
said to be in steady state. There are
different methods to find the solutions of
the difference differential equations of the
queueing models. Notable among them are
1. Probability generating function
method and
2. Differential operator technique.
Method 1:
Solving Steady-State Difference
Equations for probability distribution {Pn}
by Generating Functions.
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 V. Parimala

The probability generating function, For example, If the difference

∞ equation is of the form
P(z) = P z
n= 0
n
n
(z -complex with z ≤ 1 ),
c2Pn+2 + c1Pn+1 + c0Pn= 0 (1)
can be utilized to find the {Pn}. The
Then
procedure involves finding a closed
(c2E2 + cıE + c0)Pn = 0 (2)
expression for P(z) and then finding the
and if the quadratic in E has the real roots
power series expansion to “pick off” the
r1 and r2, then (2) can be written as
{Pn} which are the coefficients.
(E – rı)(E-r2)Pn = 0.
For some models, it is relatively
Hence dırıⁿ and d2r2ⁿ are solutions to
easy to find a closed expression for P(z),
(1), where dı and d2 are arbitrary constants.
but quite difficult to find its expansion to
This can be verified by the substitution of
obtain the {Pn}. However, even if the
d1r1n and d2r2ⁿ into (1).
series expansion cannot be found, P(z) still
provide useful information. For example,
For example substituting Pn= d1r1n,we
d have
P( z ) evaluated at z=1 gives the
dz c2dırıⁿ+² + cıdırıⁿ+¹ + c0dırıⁿ = 0,
expected number in the system, (i.e) d1rıⁿ (c2rı² + cırı + c0) = 0,
∞
Which is true. Similarly, one can show
L =  nPn
n =0
that Pn = d2r2ⁿ is a solution and hence that
their sum, dırıⁿ + d2r2ⁿ, is also a solution.
Method II If the difference equations are non-
Solving Steady-state Difference homogeneous of the form
Equations for {Pn} by the Use of (c2Pn+2+c1P n+1+c0Pn)=krm
Operators. and if r1 and r2 are the roots of the
characteristic equation
We begin here by considering a c2z2+c1z+c0=0 , the solution is given by
linear operator E defined on the sequence kr m
Pn = k r + k r + ( 2
11
n
2 2
n
)
{a0,a1,a2,……}, such that c2 r + c1r + c0

Ean = an+ı (for all n). provide denominator is not equal to zero.
If the denominator is zero then
Then the general linear homogeneous accordingly the situation can be handled.
difference equation with constant
coefficients CONCLUSION
Queueing system with a removable
cn an+ cn an+ı + …… + cn+к an+к service stations means that the decision
n+k
= c a
i =n
i i =0 may be written as maker can turn a service station on at the
customer’s arrival epoch or off at service
completion epoch. Yadin and Naor first
Since Eman = an+m (for all n and m). introduced the concept of N-policy, which
turns the server on when the number of

Cauvery Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2, January 2008 124

 Characteristics of Queueing System

customers in the system reaches a certain communication system over more than
number N (N≥1) and turns the server off two decades
when there no customers in the system.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Queueing models with a single
1. Baily, N.T.J. (1954), “On queueing
removable server have been investigated
process with bulk service”, J.Roy
by Bell , Heymann , Kimura , Sobel ,
Statist. Soc. B, Vol.16, 80-87.
Teghem and others under assumptions
2. Bell,C.E. (1971) characterization and
regarding the interarrival time and service
computation of optimal policies for
time distribution. Sivazlian and Stanfel
operating an M/G/1 queueing system
have studied the controllable M/M/1
with removable server. Opns.Res.19,
queueing system and obtained the optimal
208-218.
operating policy at minimum cost.
3. Bell,C.E. (1972) optimal operation of
Erlangian service queueing model have
an M/G/1 policy queue with
been studied by many authors. Gross and
4. ErlangA.K.,(1909),“The theory of
Harries have considered the ordinary
probabilities and telephone
M/Ex/1 queueing system and Kuo_Hsiung
conversations” Nyt. Tidsslerft Mate
Wang in this paper, have studied the
matik, B. 20, 33-39.
optimal operation of an M/Ek/1 queueing
5. Medhi.J. (1979) Further results on
system with a removable service station
waiting time distribution in a Poisson
under steady state conditions. Analytic
queue under a general bulk service
closed form solution of the controllable
rule cahiers due centred Etudes de
M/Ek/1 queueing system are derived and
Recheche oprationaelle 21,183-189.
the expected cost function per unit time is
6. Medhi, J. (1981), “Stochastic
constructed to determine the optimal
processs”, Wiley Eastern Limited.
operating policy at minimum cost.
7. Medhi, J. (1984), “Recent
development in Bulk and queueing
Single server queueing models with
models”, John Wiley Eastern Limited,
vacations have been well studied due to
New Delhi.
their wide applications in flexible
manufacturing or computer

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