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On the optimal allocation of service to impatient tasks

Part of: Operations research and management science Computer system organization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

K. D. Glazebrook ,
P. S. Ansell ,
R. T. Dunn  and
R. R. Lumley
K. D. Glazebrook*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
P. S. Ansell*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
R. T. Dunn*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
R. R. Lumley*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
*
∗ Postal address: School of Management, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9JY, UK.
∗∗∗ Postal address: School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK.
∗ Postal address: School of Management, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9JY, UK.
∗ Postal address: School of Management, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9JY, UK.
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Abstract

Service is often provided in contexts where tasks or customers are impatient or perishable in that they have natural lifetimes of availability for useful service. Moreover, these lifetimes are usually unknown to the service provider. The question of how service might best be allocated to the currently waiting tasks or customers in such a context has been neglected and we propose three simple models. For each model, an index heuristic is developed and is assessed numerically. In all cases studied the heuristic comes close to optimality.

Keywords

Dynamic programmingindex policyMarkov decision processmulticlass queuerestless bandit

MSC classification

Primary: 90B36: Scheduling theory, stochastic
Secondary: 68M20: Performance evaluation; queueing; scheduling
Type
Research Papers
Information
Journal of Applied Probability , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 51 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 2004 

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