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09 Queuing Systems

The document discusses queuing systems and elements of queuing models. It describes key concepts like interarrival times, service times, queue size and discipline. It also discusses the role of exponential and Poisson distributions in modeling random arrival and service processes.

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Regina Southard
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28 views

09 Queuing Systems

The document discusses queuing systems and elements of queuing models. It describes key concepts like interarrival times, service times, queue size and discipline. It also discusses the role of exponential and Poisson distributions in modeling random arrival and service processes.

Uploaded by

Regina Southard
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Queuing Systems

Operations
Management
Queuing Systems
Waiting for service is part of daily life. We wait for service in
restaurants, we queue up to board a plane, and we line up for service in
post offices.

And the waiting phenomenon is not an experience limited to human


beings: Jobs wait to be processed on a machine, planes circle in stack
before given permission to land, and cars stop at traffic lights.
Queuing Systems
A fast-food restaurant with three service counters. The manager wants
to expedite service. A study reveals the following relationship between
the number of service counters and the waiting time for service:

An examination of these data shows a 7-min average waiting time for


the present 3-counter situation. Five counters would reduce waiting to
about 3 minutes.
Elements of a Queuing Model
The principal players in a queuing situation are the customer and the
server. Customer arrive at a (service) facility from a source. On arrival,
a customer can start service immediately or wait in a queue if the
facility is busy.

When a facility completes a


service, it automatically “pulls” a
waiting customer, if any, from the
queue. If the queue is empty, the
facility becomes idle until a new
customer arrives.
Elements of a Queuing Model
From the standpoint of analyzing queues, the arrival of customers is
represented by the interarrival time (time between successive arrivals),
and the service is measured by the service time per customer.

The interarrival and service time are:


- Probabilistic. E.g. operation of a post office.
- Deterministic. E.g. arrival of applicants for job interviewer for a
doctor’s appointment.
Elements of a Queuing Model
Queue size plays a role in the analysis of queues, it may be:
- Finite: as in the buffer area between two successive machines.
- Infinite: as in mail-order facilities.

Queue discipline represents the order in which customer are selected


from a queue, is an important factor in the analysis of queuing models.
- First-in, first-out. FIFO
- Last-in, first-out. LIFO Customers may also be selected
- Service in random order. SIRO from the queue based on some
order of priority.
Elements of a Queuing Model
Queuing behavior plays a role in waiting-line analysis. Customers may
jockey from a longer queue to a shorter one to reduce waiting time,
they may balk from joining a queue altogether because of anticipated
long delay, or they may renege from a queue because they have been
waiting too long.

The design of the service facility may include parallel servers (e.g., post
office or bank operation). The servers may also be arranged in series
(e.g., jobs processed on successive machines), or they may be
networked (e.g., routers in a computer network).
Elements of a Queuing Model
The source from which customers are generated may be finite or
infinite. A finite source limits the number of arriving customers (e.g.,
machines requesting the service of a repairperson). An infinite source
is, for all practical purposes, forever abundant (e.g., calls arriving at a
telephone exchange).
Role of Exponential Distribution
In most queuing situations, arrivals occur randomly. Randomness
means that the occurrence of an event (e.g., arrival of a customer or
completion of a service) is not influenced by the length of time that has
elapsed since the occurrence of the last event.
Random interarrival and service times are described quantitatively in
queuing models by the exponential distribution, which is defined as

,t>0

The exponential distribution describes a totally random phenomenon.


Poisson Distribution
When we are interested in the number of arrivals or events in a period
T, the distribution is obtained by finding the exact probability of n
arrivals during T.
If the arrival process is random, then the distribution is Poisson, and
the formula is:

( 𝜆 𝑇 )𝑛 𝑒 − 𝜆 𝑇
𝑃 𝑇 ( 𝑛) =
𝑛!

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