Processors handling multi-class traffic typically alternate between serving a particular class of traffic and performing other tasks, e.g., secondary service tasks or routine maintenance. The stochastic behavior of such systems is modeled by a newly introduced class of Bernoulli GI/G/1 vacation models. For this model, when a vacation is completed and customers are present, a customer is served. When a customer has just been served and other customers are present, the server accepts a customer with fixed probability p or commences a vacation of prespecified random duration with probability 1 – p. Whenever no customers are present, a vacation is taken. When p = 0 or p = 1 this schedule reduces to the previously introduced single service schedule and the exhaustive service schedule, respectively. An analysis of all three schedules on a state space incorporating server vacations is presented using simple methods in the complex plane. It is shown that the recent decomposition results for exhaustive service extend to the more general class of Bernoulli schedules.

Falin (1984) examined the quasi-input process (the flow of service starting times) in the M/G/1/∞ queue and raised the question as to whether this process is a renewal process. We show that, except in the trivial case of instantaneous service, the quasi-input process is never renewal.

An exponential martingale is defined for a class of random walks in the positive quarter lattice which are associated with a wide variety of Markovian two-queue networks. Balance formulas generalizing Wald's exponential identity are derived from the regularity of several types of hitting times with respect to this martingale. In a queuing context, these formulas can be interpreted as functional relations of practical interest between the number of customers at certain epochs and the utilization of the queues up to these epochs.

An almost sure convergence result for the normed population size of a bisexual population model is proved. Properties of the limit random variable are deduced. The derivation of similar results for a general class of such processes is discussed.

An almost sure convergence result for the normed population size of a supercritical controlled branching process is proved.

A simple coupling argument is used to obtain a new proof of a result of Daniels (1967) concerning the total size distribution of the general stochastic epidemic. The proof admits a straightforward generalisation to multipopulation epidemics and indicates that similar results are unlikely to be available for epidemics with non-exponential infectious periods.

Place n arcs of equal length uniformly at random on the circumference of a circle. We give a simple probabilistic derivation of the moments of the uncovered portion of the circle.

A number of jobs are to be processed using a number of identical machines which operate in parallel. The processing times of the jobs are stochastic, but have known distributions which are stochastically ordered. A reward r(t) is acquired when a job is completed at time t. The function r(t) is assumed to be convex and decreasing in t. It is shown that within the class of non-preemptive scheduling strategies the strategy SEPT maximizes the expected total reward. This strategy is one which whenever a machine becomes available starts processing the remaining job with the shortest expected processing time. In particular, for r(t) = – t, this strategy minimizes the expected flowtime.