Chapter 1

Queuing Theory

Learning Objectives
After completing this chapter, students will be able to:
1. identify basic structures of queues and
typical goals for designing of queuing
systems with respect to waiting.
2. model queuing systems.
3. solve queuing problems.

Chapter Outline
A. Elements and Characteristics of a Queuing

System

B. Pure Birth and Death Models

C. Queuing Models
1. Single-Server Models
2. Multiple-Server Models
3. Constant Service Time Models
4. Finite Population Models

13-3

Chapter 1
Queuing Theory
A. Elements and Characteristics
of a Queuing System

Introduction
Real-Life Application-Analysis of an
Internal Transport System in a Manufacturing Plant
Three trucks are used in a manufacturing plant to transport
materials. The trucks wait in a central parking lot until
requested. A truck answering a request will travel to the
customer location, carry a load to its destination, and then
return to the central parking lot. The principal user of the
service is production, followed by the workshop and
maintenance. Other departments occasionally may request the
use of the trucks. Complaints about the long wait for a free
truck have prompted users, especially production, to request
adding a fourth truck to the fleet. This is an unusual
application, because queuing theory is used to show that the
source of the long delays is mainly logistical and that with a
simple change in the operating procedure of the truck pool, a
fourth truck is not needed.

Introduction
n Queuing theory is the study of waiting lines.
n It is one of the oldest and most widely used quantitative

analysis techniques.

n Waiting lines are an everyday occurrence, affecting

people shopping for groceries, buying gasoline, making

a bank deposit, or waiting on the telephone for the first
available airline reservationist to answer.

n Queues, another term for waiting lines, may also take

the form of machines waiting to be repaired, trucks in

line to be unloaded, or airplanes lined up on a runway
waiting for permission to take off.

Elements of a Queuing System

n The principal actors in a queuing situation are

the customer and the server.

n Customers are generated from a source.

n A queuing process consists in
o customers arriving at a service facility, then
o waiting in a queue if all servers are busy, eventually
o receiving service, and finally
o departing from the facility.

Elements of a Queuing System

Example 1
In each of the following situations, identify the customer and
the server:
Planes arriving at an airport.
Customer plane
Server runway
b) Letters processed in a post office.
Customer letter
Server clerk
c) Parking lot operation.
Customer car
Server parking space
a)

Elements of a Queuing System

n A queuing system is a set of customers, a set of

servers, and an order whereby customers arrive and

are processed.

n Queuing systems are classified in terms of the number

of channels, or servers, and the number of phases, or

service stops.
n A single-channel system with one server is quite
common.
n Multichannel systems exist when multiple
servers are fed by one common waiting line.
n In a single-phase system, the customer receives
service form just one server.
n In a multiphase system, the customer has to go
through more than one server.

Four basic
queuing
system
configurations

Figure 1.1

Elements of a Queuing System

Queuing system is a birth-death process with a
population consisting of customers either waiting
for service or currently in service.
A birth occurs when a customer arrives at the
service facility.
A death occurs when a customer departs from the
facility.
The state of the system is the number of customers
in the facility.

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Queuing systems are characterized by five
components:
1. arrival pattern
2. service pattern
3. number of servers
4. system capacity
5. queue discipline

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Arrival Pattern
n Specified by the interarrival time, the time

between successive customer arrivals to the

service facility.

n It may be deterministic or known exactly, or it

may be a random variable whose probability

distribution is presumed known.

n It may depend on the number of customers

already in the system, or it may be stateindependent

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Arrival Pattern
n Also of interest is whether
o customers arrive singly or in bulks/batches
o balking or reneging is permitted
Balking refers to customers who refuse to join the
queue.
Reneging customers enter the queue but become
impatient and leave without receiving their
service.
Jockeying occurs when customers switch lines
once they perceived that another line is moving
faster.

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Arrival Pattern
n Unless stated to the contrary, the standard

assumption will be made that all customers

arrive singly and that neither balking nor
reneging occurs.

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Service Pattern
n Specified by the service time, the time required

by one server to serve one customer.

n It may be deterministic or it may be a random

variable whose probability distribution is

presumed known.

n It may depend on the number of customers

already in the facility, or it may be stateindependent

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Service Pattern
n Also of interest is whether the
o customer is attended completely by one

server; or
o customer requires a sequence of servers.
n Unless stated to the contrary, the standard

assumption will be made that one server can

completely serve a customer

Characteristics of a Queuing System

System Capacity
n System capacity is the capacity of the facility

to hold customers or the maximum number of

customers, both those in service and those in
the queue(s), permitted in the service facility at
the same time.

n Whenever a customer arrives at a facility that

is full, the arriving customer is denied entrance

to the facility.

Characteristics of a Queuing System

System Capacity
n Such customer is not allowed to wait outside

the facility (since the that effectively increases

the capacity) but is forced to leave without
receiving service.

n A system that has no limit on the number of

customers permitted inside the facility has

infinite capacity, a system with a limit has
finite capacity.

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Queue Disciplines
n Queue discipline is the order in which customers

are served.
o first-in, first-out (FIFO)

first-come, first serve (FCFS)

o last-in, first-out (LIFO)

last-come, first serve (LCFS)
o service in random order (SIRO)
o priority ordering (PRIO)
o any other specialized ordering

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Example 2
For each of the situations in Example 1, identify the following:
(a) nature of the calling source (finite or infinite), (b) nature of
arriving customers (individually or in bulk), (c) interarrival time
(probabilistic or deterministic), (d) service time (f) queue
capacity (finite or infinite), and (g) queue discipline
a)

Planes arriving at an airport.

Calling source infinite
Arriving customers individual
Interarrival time probabilistic
Service time time to clear the runway
Queue capacity infinite
Queue discipline FIFO

Characteristics of a Queuing System

Example 2
For each of the situations in Example 1, identify the following:
(a) nature of the calling source (finite or infinite), (b) nature of
arriving customers (individually or in bulk), (c) interarrival time
(probabilistic or deterministic), (d) service time (f) queue
capacity (finite or infinite), and (g) queue discipline
b)

Letters processed in a post office.

Calling source infinite
Arriving customers bulk
Interarrival time deterministic
Service time time to process letter
Queue capacity infinite
Queue discipline SIRO

Characteristics of a Queuing System

n In most queuing situations, the arrival of

customers occurs in a totally random fashion.

n Randomness here 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.

n Random interarrival and service times are

described quantitatively in queuing models by

n the Poisson Distribution
n the Exponential Distribution

The Poisson Distribution

n The Poisson distribution describes

situations in which customers arrive

independently during a certain time
interval, and the number of arrivals
depends on the length of the time interval.

n Examples are patients arriving at a health

clinic, customers arriving at a bank

window, passengers arriving at an airport,
and telephone calls going through a
central exchange.

The Poisson Distribution

n The formula for the Poisson distribution is

()Xe-
P(X) =
X!
Where
P(x) = the probabilioty of exactly X arrivals of occurrences

= average number of arrivals per unit of time

(the mean arrival rate)
e
= 2.7182818 (the base of the natural logarithm).
X
= the number of occurrences (0,1,2, )

The Poisson Distribution

n The Poisson probabilities that X is 0, 1, and 2

when = 2 are as follows:

The Poisson Distribution

n Using Excel

The Exponential Distribution

n The exponential distribution, also called

the negative exponential distribution, is

used in dealing with queuing problems.

n The exponential distribution often

describes the time required to service a

customer.

n The exponential distribution is a

continuous distribution.

The Exponential Distribution

n Its probability function is given by

f(X) = e-X

X = the random variable (service times)

= the average number of units the service facility can handle
per unit time
e = 2.718 (the base of the natural logarithm)
1/ = the average service time

The Exponential Distribution

n As with any other continuous distribution,

probabilities are found by determining the area

under the curve.

n The probability that an exponentially distributed

time (X) required to serve a customer is less than

or equal to time t is given by the formula

P(X t) = 1 e-t

The Exponential Distribution

Example:
n Arnolds Muffler Shop installs new

mufflers on automobiles and small trucks.

The mechanic can install new mufflers at a
rate of about 3 per hour, and this service
time is exponentially distributed.

n What is the probability that the time to

install a new muffler would be 1/2 hour or

less?

The Exponential Distribution

X = the exponentially distributed service times
= average number that can be served per time period = 3 per hour
t = hour = 0.5

The graph of
f(X) = 3e-3X
P(X 0.5) = 1 e-3(0.5)
= 0.7769000
= 78%
There is about a 78% chance the time will be no
more than 0.5 hour and about a 22% chance that
the time will be longer than this.

The Exponential Distribution

n The probability that the service time is no more

1/3 hour or 2/3 hour, as follows:

n the probability that the mechanic at Arnolds

Muffler Shop would take longer than 0.5 hour, we

have

The Exponential Distribution

n Using Excel