Title: A quorum queueing system with unreliable server and restricted admission

Authors: Khalid Alnowibet, Lotfi Tadj

Addresses: College of Science, Department of Statistics and Operations Research, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia. ' Department of Finance, Information Systems and Management Science, Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary's University, 923 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3, Canada

Abstract: We consider in this paper a bulk service, or quorum, queueing system. The server is unreliable and may break down while providing service. The admission to the system is controlled and some arrivals may be denied admission. The queueing process is studied and relevant performance measures, such as the mean number of customers in the system, the mean duration of the idle period, busy period, and busy cycle, are obtained. These measures are then used to design an optimal management policy for the system where the optimal quorum size is sought. The effect of relevant system parameters on the optimal quorum size and optimal expected total cost per unit of time are shown in a numerical example.

Keywords: bulk service queueing; quorum size; unreliable servers; breakdown; restricted admission; optimal management policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAMS.2011.040232

International Journal of Applied Management Science, 2011 Vol.3 No.2, pp.174 - 185

Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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