WAITING LINE THEORY

Presented by,

Mr. Sagar Govind Mushan

Assistant Professor,
SMCE,
MITAOE, Alandi, Pune
05/12/2020
 Introduction
• The study of waiting lines, called queuing theory is one of the oldest and most
widely used Operations Research techniques.
• The queuing theory, also called the waiting line theory, owes its development
to A. K. Erlang’s efforts to analyze telephone traffic congestion with a view to
satisfying the randomly arising demand for the services of the Copenhagen
automatic telephone system, in the year 1909.
• The theory is applicable to situation where the customers arrive at some
service stations for some service; wait occasionally not); and then leave the
system after getting the service.
• The queues may consist of customers for buying milk and other milk products
at a milk parlor, machines waiting to be repaired, trucks or vehicles waiting at
the milk plant, patients in a hospital who need treatment and so on. In the
absence of a perfect balance between the service facilities and the customers,
waiting is required either of the services facilities or for the customer’s
arrival.
• Thus in short, this theory is applicable to situations where Customers arrive at
a service station, Wait for their turn, are serviced and then leave the system.
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 Queuing System

• A queuing system comprise with two components, the queue and the
service facility. The queue is where the customers are waiting to be served.
The service facility is customer’s being served and the individual service
stations.
• Basic elements of Queuing System

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 Types of queuing systems
1] Single Server – Single Queue:
The models that involve one queue and one service station facility are called
Single Server – Single Queue model where customer waits till the service point
is ready to take him for servicing.

2] Multiple Queues & Single server

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 Types of queuing systems
3] Service facilities in series

4] Multiple Servers & Multiple Queues

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 Types of queuing systems

5] Single Queue Multiple Servers System

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 Queue discipline/Service discipline
• In the queue structure, the important thing to know is the queue discipline. The
queue discipline is the rule determining the formation of queue, manner in which
customers form the queue are selected for service. There are a number of ways in
which customers in the queue are served. Some of these are:

1) First-Come-First-Served (FCFS): If the customers are served in the order of

their arrival, then this is known as the FCFS service discipline. For example, this
type of queue discipline is observed at a milk parlor, railway station etc. FCFS is
also known as First In First Out (FIFO).

2) Last-Come-First-Served (LCFS): Sometimes, the customers are serviced in the

reverse order of their entry so that the ones who join the last are served first and the
system is referred to as LCFS. For example, in a big godown the items which come
last are taken out first.

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 Queue discipline/Service discipline
3) Service in Random Order (SIRO): Under this rule customers are selected
for service at random, irrespective of their arrivals in the service system. In
this, every customer in the queue is equally likely to be selected.

4) Priority Service: Under this rule customers are grouped in priority classes
on the basis of some attributes such as service time or urgency or according
to some identifiable characteristic, and FCFS rule is used within each class
to provide service. Treatment of VIPs in preference to other patients in a
hospital is an example of priority service.

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 Customer Behavior

i) Balking: A customer may leave the queue because the queue is too long or
the estimated waiting time is too long or waiting space is inadequate, for desired
service and may decide to return for service at a later time. In queuing theory this
is known as balking.

ii) Reneging: A customer, after joining the queue, waits for some time and
leaves the service system due to intolerable delay or due to impatience.

iii) Jockeying: A customer who switches from one queue to another, hoping to
receive service more quickly, is said to be jockeying.

iv) Priorities: In certain applications some customers are served before others
regardless of their order of arrival. These customers have priority over others.

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 KENDALL'S NOTATION FOR REPRESENTING QUEUING
MODELS
• The complete notation can be expressed as

(a/b/c) : (d/e/f)

Where,
a = arrival (or interarrival) distribution,
b = departure (or service time) distribution,
c = number of parallel service channels in the system,
d = service discipline,
e = maximum number of customers allowed in the system,
f = calling source or population.

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The following conventional codes are generally used to replace the
symbols a, b and d:
 Symbols for a and b
• M = Markovian (Poisson) arrival or departure distribution (or
exponential Inter arrival or service time distribution)
• Ek = Erlangian or gamma inter-arrival or service time distribution with
parameter k
• GI = general independent arrival distribution, G = general departure
distribution
• D = deterministic inter arrival or service times

 Symbols for d
• FCFS (FIFO) = first come first served, (first in first out)
• LCFS (LIFO) = last come first served, (last in last out)
• SIRO = service in random order,
• GD = general service discipline.
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 Queuing Models

(a) Probabilistic Queuing Models:

Model I (Erlang Model) : This model is symbolically represented by

(M/M/l) : (FCFS/∞/∞). This represents Poisson arrival (exponential interarrival),
Poisson departure (exponential service time), single server, first come, first served
service discipline, infinite number of customers allowed in the system and infinite
population.

Model Il: This model is represented by (M/M/1) : (SIRO/∞/∞). It is essentially

the same as model I except that the service discipline is SIRO instead of FCFS.

Model III: This model is represented by (M/M/1) : (FCFS/N/∞). In this model

the capacity of the system is limited or finite, say N. So the number of arrivals
cannot exceed N.
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 Queuing Models
Model IV :This model is represented by (M/M/1) : (FCFS/n/M).It is finite-
population or limited source model. In this model the probability of an arrival
depends upon the number of potential customers available to enter the system.

Model V : This model is represented by (M/M/c) : (FCFS/∞/∞). This is same as

model I except that there are c service channels working in parallel.

(b) Deterministic Model

Model VI : This model is represented by (D/D/I) : (FCFS/∞/∞). In this model

interarrival time as well as service time

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 Queuing Models

(c) Mixed Queuing Model

Model Vll : This model is represented by (MID/I) : (FCFS/∞/∞). Here,
arrival rate is Poisson distributed while the service rate is deterministic or
constant.

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 Operating Parameters
Arrival Rate (Poisson’s distribution) λ
Service Rate (exponential distribution) μ
Number of customers in system Ls
(Length of the system)
Number of customers in queue Lq
(Length of the queue)
Waiting time in system Ws
(Waiting time of the system)
Waiting time in queue Wq
(Waiting time of the queue)
Utilization factor ρ
(Traffic Intensity)
Poisson distribution M
Probability of having zero customer in the system P0

Steady state probability of having customers in the Pn

system

Probability of having n customers in the system at time (t). Pn (t)

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 Models for Arrival and Service time
• Probability of n arrivals in time =
where, n = 0, 1, 2 ...

• Probability density function of interarrival time =

(time interval between two consecutive arrivals)

• Probability of n complete services in time (t) =

•  Probability that a customer shall be serviced =

in more than time t

• Traffic intensity / Utilization factor (ρ) = λ / μ

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Prob. 1] On an average. 6 customer’s reach a telephone booth every hour to
make calls. Determine the probability that exactly 4 customers will reach in
30-minute period, assuming that arrivals follow Poisson distribution.

Solution:
Here,
A = 6 customers/hour,
t = 30 minutes = 0.5 hour, & n = 4,
λt = 6 × 0.5 = 3 customers
:. Probability of 4 customers arriving in 0.5 hour

= = =

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Prob. 2] In a bank, 20 customers on the average, are served by a cashier in an hour.
If the service time has exponential distribution, what is the probability that
(a) It will take more than 10 minutes to serve a customer?
(b) a customer shall be free within 4 minutes ?

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 Model 1: Single Channel Poisson Arrivals with exponential service,
Infinite population model (M/M/l) : (FCFS/∞/∞).

1] Length of System (Ls):

2] Length of Queue (Lq):

3] Waiting time of system (Ws):

4] Waiting time of queue (Wq):

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 Model 1: Single Channel Poisson Arrivals with exponential service,
Infinite population model (M/M/l) : (FCFS/∞/∞).

5] Variance of queue length:

6] Average length of non-empty queue (Ln):

7] Average wailing time in non-empty queue (average waiting time

of an arrival who waits) or expected waiting time per busy period
(Wn):
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 Model 1: Single Channel Poisson Arrivals with exponential service,
Infinite population model (M/M/l) : (FCFS/∞/∞).

8] Probability of queue being greater than or equal to k

9] Probability of queue being greater than k

10] Probability that the queue is non-empty

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 Model 1: Single Channel Poisson Arrivals with exponential service,
Infinite population model (M/M/l) : (FCFS/∞/∞).

13. Probability of zero customers in the system

P0 = 1- ρ = 1- (λ / μ)

14. Probability of exactly n customers in system

Pn = ρn × (1- ρ) = (λ / μ)n × (1- λ / μ)

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Prob.3) A self-service store employs one cashier at its counter. Nine customer’s
arrive on an average every 5 minutes while the cashier can serve 10 customers in 5
minutes.
Assuming Poisson distribution for arrival rate and exponential distribution for
service time, find
1. Average number of customers in the system.
2. Average number of customers in the queue or average queue length
3. Average time a customer spends in the system.
4. Average time a customer waits before being served

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Prob.4) Customers arrive at a bank counter manned by a single cashier according
to Poisson distribution with mean arrival rate 6 customers/hour. The cashier attends
the customers on first come, first served basis at an average rate of 10
customers/hour with the service time exponential distribution. Find
(a) the probability of the number of arrivals (0 through 5) during (i) 15-minute
interval & (ii) 30-minute interval.
(b) the probability that the queuing system is idle.
(c) the probability associated with the number of customers (0 through 5) in the
queuing system.
(d) the time a customer should expect to spend in the queue.
(e) the time a customer spends before leaving the bank counter

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• Probabilities of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 customers arriving during this time
interval are shown in second column of the table 1

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Probabilities of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 customers arriving during this
time interval are shown in third column of the table shown below

Table 1

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 Model III: Represented by (M/M/1) : (FCFS/N/∞)
= Finite Queue length model
• Formulas:
1] Average number of customers in the system:

2] Average number of customers in the queue:

Lq =

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 Model III: Represented by (M/M/1) : (FCFS/N/∞)
= Finite Queue length model
3] Average time customer spends in the system:

Ws =

4] Average time customer spends in the queue:

Wq =

Where,
pn = ρn × p0

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Prob. 5] Trains arrive at the yard eve1y 15 minutes and the service time is 33
minutes. If the line capacity of the yard is limited to 4 trains. find
(i) the probability that the yard is empty,
(ii) the average number of trains in the system

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 Model IV: Single-Channel, Finite Population Model with Poisson
Arrivals & Exponential
Service Times (Limited Source Model) (M/M/1): (FCFS/n/M)

• Formulas:
1] Probability of an empty system:

2] Probability of n customers in the system:

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 Model IV: Single-Channel, Finite Population Model with Poisson
Arrivals & Exponential
Service Times (Limited Source Model) (M/M/1): (FCFS/n/M)

3] Expected number of customer in the system:

4] Expected number of customer in the queue :

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Prob. 6]

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 Model V: Multichannel Queuing Theory (M/M/c) : (FCFS/∞/∞)

• Formulae:

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 Where,

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Prob. 7]

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