Module 3
Queueing Theory
Introduction
• Customers arrive at a service center and wait for their turn to
receive the service.
• Though the arrival of customers is irregular and time taken for
service is not consistent, queues build up during hours of demand
and disappear during the lull period.
• Personally we do not like to wait.
Introduction
• In commercial or industrial situations, it may not be economical to
have waiting lines.
• On the other hand, it may not be feasible or economical to totally
avoid queues.
• An executive dealing with the system then would like to find the
optimal facilities to be provided
Introduction
• Queues or waiting lines arise when the demand for a service
facility exceeds the capacity of that facility, that is, the customers
do not get service immediately upon request but must wait, or the
service facilities stand idle and wait for customers.
• A Queueing Model is a suitable model to represent a service
oriented problem where customers arrive randomly to receive
some service, the service time being also a random variable.
Objective of a Queueing Model
• The objective of a queueing model is to find out the optimum
service rate and the number of servers so that the average cost of
being in queuing system and the cost of service are minimised.
• The queueing problem is identified by the presence of a group of
customers who arrive randomly to receive some service.
• The customer upon arrival may be served immediately or if
willing may have to wait until the server is free.
Applications of a Queueing Model
• The queueing models are basically relevant to service oriented
organisations and suggest ways and means to improve the
efficiency of the service.
• This model can be applied in the field of business banks, booking
counters), industries (servicing of machines), government railway
or post-office counters), transportation (airport, harbour) and
everyday life (elevators, restaurants, doctor’s clinic).
Queueing Model - Constituents
• Arrival
• It is the average rate at which the customers arrive as well as the
statistical pattern of arrival.
• A remarkable result in this context is that if the number of arrivals follows
a Poisson Distribution’, the corresponding inter-arrival time follows an
‘Exponential Distribution’.
• This property is frequently used to derive elegant results on queueing
problems.
Queueing Model - Constituents
• Service time
• The time taken by a server to complete service is known as service
time.
• The service time is a statistical variable and can be studied either as the
number of services completed in a given period of time or the time taken
to complete the service.
• Time Spent in the Queueing System
• The time spent by a customer in a queueing system is the sum of waiting
time before service and the service time.
• The waiting time of a customer is the time spent by a customer in a
queueing system before the service starts.
Queueing Model - Constituents
• Queue Discipline
• The queue discipline indicates the order in which members of the queue
are selected for service.
• It is most frequently assumed that the customers are served on a first
come first serve basis.
• This is commonly referred to as FIFO (first in, first out) system.
Queueing Model - Constituents
• Behavior of the Arrivals
• Balking: A customer who leaves the queue because the queue is too long
and he has no time to wait or has no sufficient waiting space.
• Reneging: Customers after joining the queue, wait for some time in the
queue but leave before being served on account of certain reasons.
• Priorities: In certain applications some customers are served before
others regardless of their arrival. These customers have priority over
others.
• Jockeying: Customers move from one queue to another hoping to receive
service more quickly.
• Collusion: Customers may be in collusion meaning that only one
person would join the queue, but demand service on behalf of several
customers.
Queueing Model
• There are several queueing models available under the categories
of single-server queueing models and multi-server queueing
models.
• Under single-server queueing model, Model 1 – FCFS (First Come
First Serve is quite popular and is also referred to as Birth and
Death Model).
• There are certain assumptions that are made under this model.
Assumptions of Model 1:(M|M|I): (∞ /FCFS)
• Arrivals are described by Poisson Probability Distribution and
come from infinite population.
• Single waiting line and each arrivals waits to be served regardless
of the length of the queue.
• Queue discipline is ‘First Come, First Serve’.
• Service times follows Exponential Distribution.
• Customer arrival is independent.
• The average service rate is more than the average arrival rate.
Model 1- Measures
•
Model 1- Measures
•
Model 1- Measures
•
Problem 1
• A road transport company has one reservation clerk on duty at a
time. He handles information of bus schedules and makes
reservations. Customers arrive at a rate of 8 per hour and the clerk
can, on an average , service 12 customers per hour. After stating
your assumptions, answer the following:
• Expected number of customers in the system
• Expected number of customers in the queue
• Expected waiting time for a customer in the queue
• Expected waiting time for a customer in the System
Solution 1
•
Solution 1
•
Problem 2
• A television repairmen finds that the time spent on his job has an
exponential distribution with a mean of 30 minutes. If he repairs
the sets in the order in which they came in, and if the arrival of
sets follows a Poisson distribution with an approximate average
rate of 10 per 8-hour day, find the following:
• Expected number of customers in the system
• Expected number of customers in the queue
• Expected waiting time for a customer in the queue
• Expected waiting time for a customer in the System
Solution 2
•
Solution 2
•
Problem 3
• In a railway marshalling yard, goods, trains arrive at a rate of 30
trains per day. Assuming that the inter arrival time follows an
exponential distribution and the service time distribution is also
exponential with an average of 36 minutes. Calculate the
following:
• Expected number of trains in the system
• Expected number of trains in the queue
• Expected waiting time for a trains in the queue
• Expected waiting time for a trains in the System
• Probability that the queue size exceeds 10
Solution 3
•
Solution 3
•
Solution 3
•
Problem 4
• Self-service at a university cafeteria, at an average rate of 7
minutes per customer is slower than their attendant service,
which has a rate of 6 minutes per student. The manager of the
cafeteria wishes to calculate the average time each student spends
waiting for service. Assume that customers arrive randomly at
each time, at the rate of 5 per hour. Calculate the appropriating
statistics for this cafeteria.
Solution 4
Self-Service Line Attendant Service Line
Arrival Rate Per Hour: λ 5 5
Service Rate Per Hour: µ
Solution 4
Self-Service Line Attendant Service Line
Problem 5
• The mean rate of arrival of planes at an airport during the peak
period is 20 per hour, and the actual number of arrivals in any
hour follows a Poisson distribution. The airport can land 60 planes
per hour on an average in good weather and 30 planes per hour in
bad weather, but the actual number landed in any hour follows a
Poisson distribution with these respective averages. When there is
congestion, the planes are forced to fly over the field in the stack
awaiting the landing of other planes that arrived earlier.
• How many planes would be flying over the field in the stack on an average
in good weather and in bad weather?
• How long a plane would be in the stack and in the process of landing in
good and in bad weather?
• How long a plane would be in the process of landing in good and bad
weather after stack awaiting?
Solution 5
Good Weather Bad Weather
Arrival Rate Per Hour: λ 20 20
Service Rate Per Hour: µ
Solution 5
Good Weather Bad Weather
Time a plane would be in the
process of landing after stack 1.5 – 0.5 = 1 Min 6 – 4 = 2 Min
awaiting
Problem 6
• An airlines organization has one reservation clerk on duty in its
local branch at any given time. The clerk handles information
regarding passenger reservations and flight timings. Assume that
the number of customers arriving during any given period is
Poisson distributed with an arrival rate of eight per hour and that
the reservation clerk can service a customer in six minutes on an
average, with an exponentially distributed service time.
• What is the probability that the system is busy?
• What is the average time a customer spends in the system?
• What is the average length of the queue and what is the average number
of customers in the system?
Solution 6
•
Solution 6
•
Q&A
Thank You