QUEUEING SYSTEMS
What is queuing theory?
Queuing theory refers to the mathematical study of the formation, function, and congestion of
waiting lines, or queues. It’s also referred to as queueing theory, queue theory, and waiting line
theory.
At its core, a queuing situation involves two parts:
1. Someone or something that requests a service—usually referred to as the customer, job,
or request.
2. Someone or something that completes or delivers the services—usually referred to as the
server.
To illustrate, let’s take two examples. First, when looking at the queuing situation at a bank, the
customers are people seeking to deposit or withdraw money, and the servers are the bank tellers.
Second, when looking at the queuing situation of a printer, the customers are the requests that
have been sent to the printer, and the server is the printer.
Queuing theory scrutinizes the entire system of waiting in line, including elements like the
customer arrival rate, number of servers, number of customers, capacity of the waiting area,
average service completion time, and queuing discipline.
Queuing discipline refers to the rules of the queue, for example whether it behaves based on a
principle of first-in-first-out, last-in-first-out, prioritized, or serve-in-random-order.
How did queuing theory start?
Queuing theory was first introduced in the early 20th century by Danish mathematician and
engineer Agner Krarup Erlang.
Erlang worked for the Copenhagen Telephone Exchange and wanted to analyze and optimize its
operations.
He sought to determine how many circuits were needed to provide an acceptable level of
telephone service, for people not to be “on hold” (or in a telephone queue) for too long. He was
also curious to find out how many telephone operators were needed to process a given volume of
calls.
His mathematical analysis culminated in his 1920 paper “Telephone Waiting Times”, which
contained some of the first queuing models and served as the foundation of applied queuing
theory. The international unit of telephone traffic is called the Erlang in his honor.
The application of queuing theory
Queuing theory is powerful because the ubiquity of queue situations means it has countless and
diverse applications.
Queuing theory has been applied, just to name a few, to:
1. Telecommunications
2. Transportation
3. Logistics
4. Finance
5. Emergency services
6. Computing
7. Industrial engineering
8. Project management
9. Operation research
Poisson Distributions
A Poisson distribution is a discrete probability distribution. It gives the probability of an event
happening a certain number of times (k) within a given interval of time or space.
The Poisson distribution has only one parameter, λ (lambda), which is the mean number of
events. The graph below shows examples of Poisson distributions with different values of λ
Exponential Distribution
The exponential distribution is a continuous probability distribution that models the time
between events in a process where events occur continuously and independently at a constant
average rate. It's particularly useful for analyzing situations involving waiting times, lifetimes,
and intervals between events.
Imagine you're working at a busy customer service center. The time between incoming customer
calls often follows an exponential distribution. Similarly, in manufacturing, the time until a
machine fails or needs maintenance frequently exhibits exponential behavior.
Key characteristics of the exponential distribution
i. The memoryless property
This is perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the exponential distribution. It means that
the future behavior of the system doesn't depend on its past history. For example, if a light bulb
has already lasted for 1000 hours, the probability it will last another 100 hours is the same as if it
were brand new. This property is unique to the exponential distribution among continuous
distributions.
ii. Constant hazard rate
The exponential distribution maintains a constant failure rate over time. This
means the probability of an event occurring in the next small time interval
remains the same, regardless of how much time has passed.
The relationship between the exponential and Poisson distributions is
fundamental in probability theory. While the Poisson distribution models the
number of events occurring in a fixed time interval, the exponential
distribution models the time between these events. They're two sides of the
same coin: if events occur according to a Poisson process with rate λ, then
the waiting time between events follows an exponential distribution with
parameter λ.
Characteristics of Queueing Systems
Key elements of queueing systems
• Customer: refers to anything that arrives at a facility and requires service,
e.g., people, machines, trucks, emails, packets, frames.
• Server: refers to any resource that provides the requested service, e.g.,
repairpersons, machines, runways at airport, host, switch, router, disk drive,
algorithm.
Queue Behavior and Queue Discipline
Queue behavior: the actions of customers while in a
queue waiting for service to begin, for example:
• Balk: leave when they see that the line is too long
• Renege: leave after being in the line when its moving too slowly
• Jockey: move from one line to a shorter line
Queue discipline: the logical ordering of customers in a queue that determines which customer
is chosen for service when a server becomes free, for example:
First-in-first-out (FIFO)
Last-in-first-out (LIFO)
Service in random order (SIRO)
Shortest processing time first (SPT)
Service according to priority (PR)
The Basic structure of queuing model
Queues are a part of everyday life. We all wait in queues to buy a movie ticket, to make bank
deposit, pay for groceries, mail a package, obtain a food in a cafeteria, to have ride in an
amusement park and have become adjustment to wait but still get annoyed by unusually long
waits. The Queuing models are very helpful for determining how to operate a queuing system in
the most effective way if too much service capacity to operate the system involves excessive
costs. The models enable finding an appropriate balance between the cost of service and the
amount of waiting.
Characteristics of the queuing system
(a) Input source
(b) Queue discipline
(c) Service mechanism
(a) Input source: One characteristic of the input source is the size. The size is the total number
of units that might require service from time to time. It may be assumed to be finite or infinite.
The customer assumption is that they generate according to ‘Poisson Distribution’ at a certain
average rate. Therefore, the equivalent assumption is that they generate according to exponential
distribution between consecutive arrivals. To solve the problems use & assume customer
population as ∞
(b) Queue Discipline: A queue is characterized by maximum permissible number of units that it
contains. Queues are called finite or infinite, according to whether number is finite or infinite.
The service discipline refers to the order in which number of queues are selected for service.
Ex: It may be FIFO, random or priority; FIFO is usually assumed unless stated otherwise.
(c) Service mechanism
This consists of one or more service facilities each of which contains one or more parallel
service channel. If there is more than one service facility, the arrival unit may receive the service
from a sequence of service channels. At a given facility, the arrival enters at the service facility
and is completely served by that server. The time elapsed from the commencement of the service
to its completion for an unit at the service facility is known as service time usually, service time
follows as exponential distribution.
Classification of queuing models using kendal & Lee notations
Generally, any queuing models may be completely specified in the following symbolic form
a / b/ c : d / e
a Type of distribution of inter – arrival time
b Type of distribution of inter – service time
c Number of servers
d Capacity of the system
e Queue discipline
M Arrival time follows Poisson distribution and
service time follows an exponential distribution.
Model I : M / M / 1 : / FCFS
Where M Arrival time follows a Poisson distribution
M Service time follows a exponential distribution
1 Single service model
Capacity of the system is infinite
FCFS Queue discipline is first come first served
Model II : M / M / 1 : N / FCFS
Where N Capacity of the system is finite
Model III : M / M / 1 : / SIRO
Where SIRO Service in random order
Model IV : M / O / 1 : / FCFS
Where D Service time follows a constant distribution or is deterministic
Model V : M / G / 1 : / FCFS
Where G Service time follows a general distribution or arbitrary distribution
Model VI : M / Ek / 1 : / FCFS
Where Ek Service time follows Erlang distribution with K phases.
Model VII : M / M / K : / FCFS
Where K Multiple Server model
Model VIII : M / M / K : N / FCFS
Model I: M / M /1 : / FCFS
Formulas: 1. Utilization factor traffic intensity / Utilization parameter / Busy period
µ
λ
ρ=
Where λ = Mean arrival rate ; μ= mean service rate
Note : μ > λ in single server model only
Model 1 - Problems
1. Arrivals at a telephone both are considered to be Poisson at an average time of 8 min
between our arrival and the next. The length of the phone call is distributed exponentially, with
a mean of 4 min.
Determine
(a) Expected fraction of the day that the phone will be in use.
(b) Expected number of units in the queue Expected waiting time in the queue.
(c) Expected number of units in the system.
(e) Expected waiting time in the system
(f) Expected number of units in queue that from time to time.
(g) What is the probability that an arrival will have to wait in queue for service?
(h) What is the probability that exactly 3 units are in system
(i) What is the probability that an arrival will not have to wait in queue for service?
(j) What is the probability that there are 3 or more units in the system?
(k) What is the probability that an arrival will have to wait more than 6 min in queue for
service?
(l) What is the probability that more than 5 units in system
(m) What is the probability that an arrival will have to wait more than 8 min in system?
(n) Telephone company will install a second booth when convinced that an arrival would have
to wait for attest 6 min in queue for phone. By how much the flow of arrival is increased in
order to justify a second booth.
Solution:
The mean arrival rate = λ = 1/8 x 60 = 7.5 / hour.
The mean service = µ = x 60 = 15 / hour.
3) Consider a box office ticket window being manned by a single server. Customer arrives to
purchase ticket according to Poisson input process with a mean rate of 30/hr. the time required to
serve a customer has an ED with a mean of 90 seconds determine:
(a) Mean queue length. (2.25)
(b) Mean waiting time in the system. (0.1)
(c) The probability of the customer waiting in the queue for more than 10min.
(0.1416)
(d) The fraction of the time for which the server is busy. (0.75)
Solution:
=0.1hr
4) A T.V repairman repair the sets in the order in which they arrive and expects that the time
required to repair a set has an ED with mean 30mins. The sets arrive in a Poisson fashion at an
average rate of 10/8 hrs a day. (a) What is the expected idle time / day for the repairman?
(0.375x8) b) How many TV sets will be there awaiting for the repair? (1.04)
5) In a bank there is only on window. A solitary employee performs all the service required and
the window remains continuously open from 7am to 1pm. It has discovered that an average
number of clients is 54 during the day and the average service time is 5mins / person. Find a)
Average number of clients in the system (3) b) Average waiting time (0.25) c) The probability
that a client has to spend more than 10mins in a system. (0.60)
7) At public telephone booth in a post – office arrivals are considered to be Poisson fashion with
an average inter arrival time of 12mins. The length of the phone call is ED with a mean of
4mins. Determine:
(a) The probability that the fresh arrival will not have to wait for the phone. (0.66)
(b) What is the probability that the an arrival will have to wait for more than 10mins before the
phone is free (0.0629)
(c) What is the average length of the queue that forms from time to time (1.5)
Solution:
8) There is congestion on the platform of a railway station. The trains arrive at a rate of 30/days.
The service time for any train is ED with an average of 36mins. Calculate: (a) Mean queue size
(2.25) (b) Probability that there are more than 10 trains in the system. (0.0422)
9) The arrival rate for a waiting line system obeys a P.D with a mean of 0.5 units/hr. it is required
that the probability of one or more units in the system does not exceed 0.25. what is the
minimum service rate that must be provided if the service duration will be distributed
exponentially? (2/hr)
