Queuing Systems: Lecture 1
Amedeo R. Odoni
October 10, 2001
Topics in Queuing Theory
9. Introduction to Queues; Little’s Law; M/M/1
10. Markovian Birth-and-Death Queues
11. The M/G/1 Queue and Extensions
12. Priority Queues; State Representations
13. Congestion Pricing
14. Dynamic Behavior of Queues
15. Hypercube Queuing Model
16. The Queue Inference Engine; Psychology
of Queues
Lecture Outline
? Introduction to queuing systems
? Conceptual representation of queuing
systems
? Codes for queuing models
? Terminology and notation
? Little’s Law and basic relationships
? Birth-and-death processes
? The M/M/1 queuing system
? State transition diagrams
? Steady-state probabilities
Queues
? Queuing Theory is the branch of operations
research concerned with waiting lines
(delays/congestion)
? A queuing system consists of a user source, a
queue and a service facility with one or more
identical parallel servers
? A queuing network is a set of interconnected
queuing systems
? Fundamental parameters of a queuing system:
Demand rate Capacity (service rate)
Demand inter-arrival times Service times
Queue capacity and discipline (finite vs. infinite;
FIFO/FCFS, SIRO, LIFO, priorities)
Myriad details (feedback effects, “jockeying”, etc.)
A Generic Queuing System
Source
of users/
customers
C C C C C C
Queue
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
Servers
Size of
user source
Arrivals
process
Queue discipline and
Queue capacity
Service process Number of servers
Arrival point
at the system
Departure point
from the system
Queuing network consisting of
five queuing systems
In Queueing system
1
Queueing
system
5
Point where
users make
a choice
Point where
users merge +
Queueing
system
4
Queueing
system
2
Queueing
system
3
Out
Applications of Queuing Theory
? Some familiar queues:
_ Airport check-in
_ Automated Teller Machines (ATMs)
_ Fast food restaurants
_ On hold on an 800 phone line
_ Urban intersection
_ Toll booths
_ Aircraft in a holding pattern
_ Calls to the police or to utility companies
? Level-of-service (LOS) standards
? Economic analyses involving trade-offs
among operating costs, capital investments
and LOS
Queuing Models Can Be Essential
in Analysis of Capital Investments
Cost
Airport Capacity
Cost of building the capacity
Total cost
Cost of losses due to waiting
“Optimal” capacity
Optimal
cost
Strengths and Weaknesses of
Queuing Theory
? Queuing models necessarily involve approximations
and simplification of reality
? Results give a sense of order of magnitude, changes
relative to a baseline, promising directions in which to
move
? Closed-form results essentially limited to “steady
state” conditions and derived primarily (but not solely)
for birth-and-death systems and “phase” systems
? Some useful bounds for more general systems at
steady state
? Numerical solutions increasingly viable for dynamic
systems
A Code for Queuing Models:
A/B/m
? Some standard code letters for A and B:
_ M: Negative exponential (M stands for memoryless)
_ D: Deterministic
_ Ek:kth-order Erlang distribution
_ G: General distribution
? Model covered in this lecture: M/M/1
C C C C C C
C
C
C
C
S
S
S
S
Service
facility
QueueCustomers
Queueing System
– / – / –
Distribution of
interarrival time
Distribution of
service time
Number of servers
Terminology and Notation
? State of system: number of customers in
queuing system
? Queue length: number of customers
waiting for service
? N(t) = number of customers in queueing
system at time t
? Pn(t) = probability that N(t) is equal to n
? ln: mean arrival rate of new customer
when N(t) = n
? mn: mean (combined) service rate when
N(t) = n
Terminology and Notation (2)
? Transient state: state of system at t
depends on state of system at t = 0 or on t
? Steady state: system is independent of
initial state and t
? m: number of servers (parallel service
channels)
? If ln and the service rate per busy server
are constant, then ln=l, mn= min (nm, mm)
? Expected interarrival time = 1/l
? Expected service time = 1/m
? Unknowns:
_ L = expected number of users in queuing system
_ Lq = expected number of users in queue
_ W = expected time in queuing system per user (W =
E(w))
_ Wq = expected waiting time in queue per user (Wq =
E(wq))
? 4 unknowns We need 4 equations
Some Expected Values of Interest
at Steady State
? Given:
_ l = arrival rate
_ m = service rate per service channel
Little’s Law
Time
Number of
users
t
N(t)
A(t)
A(t): cumulative arrivals to the system
C(t)
C(t): cumulative service completions in the system
T
TT
TT
T WTA
dttN
T
TA
T
dttN
L ?=?== ∫∫ l)(
)()()( 00
Relationships among L, Lq, W, Wq
? Four unknowns: L, W, Lq, Wq
? Need 4 equations. We have the following 3 equations:
_ L = lW (Little’s law)
_ Lq = lWq
_ W = Wq +
? If we know any one of the four expected values, we can
determine the three others
? The determination of L may be hard or easy depending
on the type of queuing system at hand
?
m
1
system) in the are customers y that probabilit :(
0
nPnPL n
n
n∑
∞
=
=
Birth-and-Death Queuing Systems
1. m parallel, identical servers.
2. Infinite queue capacity.
3. Whenever n users are in system (in
queue plus in service) arrivals are
Poisson at rate of ln per unit of time.
4. Whenever n users are in system,
service completions are Poisson at
rate of mn per unit of time.
5. FCFS discipline.
M/M/1: Observing State Transition
Diagram from Two Points
10 P?P m=
? From point 1:
0 1 2 n-1 n+1n…
l
m
l l l l l l
m m m m m m
201)( PPP mlml +=+
? From point 2:
0 1 2 n-1 n+1n…
l
m
l l l l l l
m m m m m m
10 P?P m= 21 PP ml = 1+= nn PP ml
11)( +? +=+ nnn PPP mlml
M/M/1: Derivation of P0 and Pn
00
2
201 ,,, PPPPPP
n
n ???
?
???
?=
???
?
???
?==
m
l
m
l
m
l L
∑
∑∑ ∞
=
∞
=
∞
=
???
?
???
?
=?=??
?
?
???
??=
0
0
0
0
0
1 1 ,1
n
n
n
nn
n PPP
m
lm
l
)1(1 111 then ,
00
<?=??==??
?
?
???
?= ∞∞
=
∞
=
∑∑ rrrrrmlmlr Q
n
n
n
n
)1(and 11
0
0 rrr
r
?=?==
∑∞
=
n
n
n
n
PP
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
M/M/1: Derivation of L, W, Wq, and Lq
lm
l
ml
ml
r
r
rrr
rrrrrrrr
rrrrrrr
?=?=?=???
?
???
?
??=
???
?
???
?
??=??
??
?
??=
?=?=?==?
∑
∑∑∑∑
∞
=
∞
=
?
∞
=
∞
=
∞
=
1)1()1(
1)1(
1
1)1()1(
)1( )1( )1(
2
0
1
1
000
d
d
d
d
nnnnPL
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
lmllm
l
l ?=??==?
11LW
)(
111
lmm
l
mlmm ?=??=?=? WWq
)()(
2
lmm
l
lmm
lll
?=??==? qq WL