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AN ALTERNATING SERVICE PROBLEM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2005

M. Vlasiou  and
I. J. B. F. Adan
M. Vlasiou
Affiliation:
EURANDOM, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands, E-mail: vlasiou@eurandom.tue.nl
I. J. B. F. Adan
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics & Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands, E-mail: iadan@win.tue.nl
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Abstract

We consider a system consisting of a server alternating between two service points. At both service points, there is an infinite queue of customers that have to undergo a preparation phase before being served. We are interested in the waiting time of the server. The waiting time of the server satisfies an equation very similar to Lindley's equation for the waiting time in the GI/G/1 queue. We will analyze this Lindley-type equation under the assumptions that the preparation phase follows a phase-type distribution, whereas the service times have a general distribution. If we relax the condition that the server alternates between the service points, then the model turns out to be the machine repair problem. Although the latter is a well-known problem, the distribution of the waiting time of the server has not been studied yet. We derive this distribution under the same setting and we compare the two models numerically. As expected, the waiting time of the server is, on average, smaller in the machine repair problem than in the alternating service system, but they are not stochastically ordered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 2005 , pp. 409 - 426
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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