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Orbit and retrial queues have been studied extensively in the literature. A key assumption in most of these works is that customers "go to orbit" when they are blocked upon arrival. However, real-life situations exist in which customers opt to go to orbit to efficiently use their orbit time rather than residing dormant at the service station while waiting for their service to be completed. This paper studies such a system, extending the scope of traditional orbit and retrial queues. We consider an M/G/1 queue where customers repeatedly go to orbit while their service remains in progress. That is, if a customer's service is not completed by within a specified "patience time", the customer goes to orbit for a random "orbit time". When the customer orbits, the server continues rendering her/his service. If, on return, the service is already completed, the customer leaves the system. Otherwise, s/he waits for another patience time. This policy is repeated until service completion. We analyze such an intricate system by applying the supplementary variable technique and using Laplace–Stieltjes transforms. Performance measures are derived, and a comparison analysis is provided between various service time distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In non-Markovian tandem queueing networks the output process of one site, which is the input process to the next site, is not renewal. Consequently, the correlation analysis of that output processes is essential when studying such networks. A correlation analysis in the M/G/1 queue has been studied in the literature via derivation of the joint Laplace-Stieltjes transform (LST) of the sum of two consecutive inter-departure times. That LST is obtained by considering all possible cases at departure epochs. However, those epochs are expressed via dependent variables. In this paper, we first extend the analysis to the more general PH/G/1 queue, and investigate various queues, such as E2/G/1 and C2/C2/1. Then, we consider the lag-n correlation, which requires derivation of the joint LST of sum of n + 1 consecutive inter-departure times. Yet, deriving this LST by the common approach becomes impractical for n + 1 ≥ 3, as the number of all possible cases at departure epochs increases significantly. To overcome this obstacle, we derive a corresponding single-parameter LST, which expresses the sum of n + 1 consecutive inter-departure times via the (n + 1)-st departure epoch only. Consequently, the latter LST is expressed via a much fewer number of possible cases, and not less important, as a function of independent variables only, eliminating the need to derive the corresponding joint density. Considering the M/G/1 and the E2/G/1 queues, we demonstrate that the joint LST can be reconstructed directly via the corresponding single-parameter LST when n + 1 = 2. We further conjecture that the multi-parameter joint LST can be reconstructed from the corresponding single-parameter LST in more general queues and for values of n + 1 > 2. The conjecture is validated for various PH/G/1 queues and proved for n + 1 = 3 in the M/G/1 case. The new approach facilitates the calculation of lag-n correlation of the departure process from PH/G/1 queue for n + 1 ≥ 3. Our analysis illuminates the cases when using renewal approximation of the output process provides a proper approximation when studying non-Markovian stochastic networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is motivated by industries in which products can be partially prepared and stored before demand occurs, while demand is stock-dependent. We study a multi-server system in which the servers utilise their idle time to produce and store 'preliminary services' (PSs) in order to reduce customers' sojourn time and, as a result, stimulating demand by creating the anticipation of a shorter sojourn time. In order to facilitate closed-form solutions, we analyse a Markovian queueing-inventory model and apply matrix geometric (MG) methods. In contrast to most applications in which the rate matrix R of the MG analysis is calculated numerically, our analysis enables derivation of explicit solutions for the entries of R and discovers their relation to Catalan numbers, allowing a rapid solution for large systems. Consequently, the system's stability condition is readily obtained and shown to be identical to that of a regular M/M/s queue. Two models are developed: one for non-perishable PSs, the other for perishable ones. An economic analysis is provided for two case studies: a bike store and a pizza store. We observe that the reward has low sensitivity to deviation from the optimal PSs capacity and high sensitivity to deviation from the optimal promotional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider an n-site tandem stochastic production network where each product moves sequentially through the sites, and the product's quality deteriorates with its sojourn time in the system. At each site the product goes through two stages: the first stage is a processing operation with a generally-distributed random duration. This operation either does or does not conclude successfully; in the latter case, the operation is repeated immediately. Once the processing operation concludes successfully, the product goes through an inspection stage lasting a generally-distributed random duration. At the end of the inspection the product's state is determined as follows: either (i) it requires additional processing and moves forward to the next site; or (ii) it is found 'good' and exits the network with quality value depending on its total sojourn time in the system; or (iii) it is declared 'failed', discarded, and exits the network with zero quality value. Two scenarios are analysed: (i) a new product enters the system only after the preceding product has exited and (ii) the network is a tandem Jackson-type system. For each scenario, we construct both time-dependent and quality-dependent performance measures. In the case where the sites can be arranged in an arbitrary order, we derive easy to implement optimal index-type policies of ordering the sites so as to maximise the quality rate of the production network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asymmetric Simple Inclusion Process (ASIP) is an n-site tandem stochastic network with a Poisson arrival influx into the first site. Each site has an unlimited buffer with a gate in front of it. Each gate opens, independently of all other gates, following a site-dependent Exponential inter-opening time. When a site's gate opens, all particles occupying the site move simultaneously to the next site. In this paper, a Generalized ASIP network is analyzed where the influx is to all sites, while gate openings are determined by a general renewal process. A compact matrix approach—instead of the conventional (and tedious) successive substitution method—is constructed for the derivation of the multidimensional probability-generating function (PGF) of the site occupancies. It is shown that the set of ( 2 n n ) linear equations required to obtain the PGF of an n-site network can be first cut by half into a set of 2 n − 1 n equations, and then further reduced to a set of 2 n − n + 1 equations. The latter set can be additionally split into several smaller triangular subsets. It is also shown how the PGF of an n + 1 -site network can be derived from the corresponding PGF of an n-site system. Explicit results for networks with n = 3 and n = 4 sites are obtained. The matrix approach is utilized to explicitly calculate the probability that site k   k = 1 , 2 , ... , n is occupied. We show that, in the case where arrivals occur to the first site only, these probabilities are functions of both the site's index and the arrival flux and not solely of the site's index. Consequently, refined formulas for the latter probabilities and for the mean conditional site occupancies are derived. We further show that in the case where the arrival process to the first site is Poisson with rate λ , the following interesting property holds: P s i t e   k   i s   o c c u p i e d   |   λ = 1 = P s i t e   k + 1   i s   o c c u p i e d   |   λ → ∞ . The case where the inter-gate opening intervals are Gamma distributed is investigated and explicit formulas are obtained. Mean site occupancy and mean total load of the first k sites are calculated. Numerical results are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2009.02.024 Byline: Nir Perel (a), Uri Yechiali (a)(b) Keywords: Alternating queue; M / M / 1 ; M / M / c ; M / M / [infinity] ; Slow server(s); Impatient customers; Abandonment Abstract: We study M/M/c queues (c=1, 1 We concentrate on deriving analytic solutions to the queue-length distributions. We derive, for each case of c, the corresponding probability generating function, and calculate the mean queue size. Several extreme cases are investigated and numerical results are presented. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Statistics and Operations Research, School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel (b) Afeka Academic College of Engineering, Afeka, Tel Aviv 69107, Israel Article History: Received 6 August 2008; Accepted 18 February 2009