Quantitative Techniques for Managers KMBN206

Queueing System: General Concepts

A group of customers waiting for service in a system is known as queue or waiting line.
Thus, a queue involves arriving customers who wait to be served at the facilities providing the
service required by them. The population from which the queue forms is calling population.

Queueing problem is identified by the presence of groups of customers who arrive

randomly to receive the service. The customers, upon arrival may be attended immediately or may
have to wait until the server is free. This methodology is applicable in the field of business,
industries, government, transportations, library etc.. Queueing models are basically relevant to
service oriented organizations and suggest ways and means to improve the efficiency of service.

Components of a Basic Queueing Process

Queueing phenomenon occurs in several real-life congestion situations when resources

(machines at a factory, elevators, telephone lines, traffic lights) cannot immediately render the
amount or the kind of service required by their users.

The basic processes assumed by most queueing models are the following. Arrivals requiring
service are generated over time by an input source. These customers enter the queueing system
and join a queue. At certain times, a member of the queue is selected for service by some rule
known as the queue discipline. The required service is then performed for the customer by the
service mechanism, after which the customer leaves the queueing system. This process is depicted
in figure. Many alternative assumptions can be made about various elements of the queueing
process.

Dr. Deepa Chauhan

Quantitative Techniques for Managers KMBN206

Characteristics of Queueing Models

A queueing model is specified completely by the following characteristics:

a) The Input (Arrival Pattern)

b) The Service Mechanism or Service Pattern
c) The Queue Discipline
d) Customer’s Behavior
e) System Capacity

The brief description of each of these components is given below:

(a) Arrival process

Arrival process depicts the manner in which customers arrive and join the system. We can describe
the arrival process in terms of random variable which can represent either the number of arrivals
during a time interval or the time interval between successive arrivals. If customers arrive in
groups, their size can be a random variable as well, this case is normally referred to as bulk queues.
In queueing models, the customer’s arrivals are summarized in terms of probability distributions.

The simplest arrival process is one where we have completely regular arrivals (i.e. the same

constant time interval between successive arrivals). A Poisson stream of arrivals corresponds to

arrivals at random. In a Poisson stream successive customers arrive after intervals which

independently are exponentially distributed.

The Poisson stream is important as it is a convenient mathematical model of many real life queuing

systems and is described by a single parameter - the average arrival rate. Other important arrival

processes are scheduled arrivals; batch arrivals; and time dependent arrival rates (i.e. the arrival

rate varies according to the time of day).

(b) The Service Mechanism or Service Pattern

The service mechanism refers to the pattern according to which the arrivals are served in a queue.
The service mechanism are described by the rate, which is defined by the number of arrivals served
per unit time or as a time required to serve the arrival. If the system is empty the service facility is
idle. The service time may also be deterministic or probabilistic.

Dr. Deepa Chauhan

Quantitative Techniques for Managers KMBN206

The specification of service mechanism includes the number of servers in service facility. The
queueing system may consist of a single server, multi server or infinite servers. The service may be
provided in batches of fixed or varying batch size. Generally, single server provides service to the
customers at a time. There may arise some queueing situations wherein the arrivals are served
simultaneously by the same server. The phenomenon in which server depends on the number of
arrivals waiting in the system is referred to as state dependent service.

Most elementary models assume one service facility with either one server or a finite number of
servers.

The essential features of queuing management system in operations research are

 A description of the resources needed for service to begin

 How long the service will take (the service time distribution)
 The number of servers available
 Whether the servers are in series (each server has a separate queue) or in parallel (one queue
for all servers)
 Whether preemption is allowed (a server can stop processing a customer to deal with another
"emergency" customer)
(c) Queue discipline

Queue discipline is the manner of choosing customers for service from the queue. Arrivals in the
queue receive service according to a queueing discipline; some possible queueing disciplines are:

 First Come First Served (FCFS): The most common and probably the fairest is the
FCFS/FIFO (First In First Out). Arrivals receive service in the order of their arrival. This
service discipline may be seen at cinema ticket window, at a patrol pump etc..
 Last Come First Served (LCFS): This discipline may be seen in big godowns where the
arrivals which come last are taken out (served) first.
 Processor Sharing: Service capacity is shared equally between customers.
 Round Robin (RR): Customer receives service in cyclic fashion; each customer receives a
fixed amount of service in each cycle unless they complete its total service demand. Round
Robin queue discipline is used as the traffic management strategy.
 Random: When one customer completes his service and other waiting, each of waiting
customer is equally likely to be the next one to receive service.

Dr. Deepa Chauhan

Quantitative Techniques for Managers KMBN206

 Priority: Some customers are served before the others without considering their order of
arrival i.e. some customers are served on priority basis.
 Shortest job first: The next job to be served is the one with the smallest size.
 Shortest remaining processing time: The next job to serve is the one with the smallest
remaining processing requirement.

Dr. Deepa Chauhan