(H) QUEUEING THEORY

In everyday life, it is seen that a number of people arrive at a cinema ticket window. If the people
arrive “too frequently” they will have to wait for getting their tickets or sometimes do without it.
Under such circumstances, the only alternative is to form a queue, called the waiting line, in
order to maintain a proper discipline. Here the arriving people are called the customers and the
person issuing the tickets is called a server.
Waiting lines are not only the lines of human beings but also the airplanes seeking to land at
busy airport , ships to be unloaded, machine parts assembled, cars waiting for traffic lights to
turn green, calls arriving at a telephone switch-board, jobs waiting for processing by computer,
or anything else that require work done on and for it also the examples of costly and critical
delay situations. Further, it is also observed that arriving units may form one line and be serviced
through only one station (as in a doctor’s clinic), may form one line and be served through
several stations (as in barber shop), may form several lines and be served through as many
stations(e.g. at checkout counters of super market).
To efficiently utilize manufacturing and services enterprises, it is critical to effectively manage
queues. To do that, we present a set of analytical techniques collectively called queueing theory.
The main object of queueing theory is to develop formulae, expressions, or algorithms for
performance metrics, such as the average number of entities in a queue, mean time spent in the
system, resource availability, probability of rejection, and the like. The results from queueing
theory can directly be used to solve design and capacity planning problems, such as determining
the number of servers, an optimum queueing discipline, and schedule for service, number of
queues, system architecture, and the like. Besides making such strategic design decisions,
queueing theory can also be used for tactical as well as operational designs and controls.
Queueing is a common occurrence – in banks, public transportation, hospitals, hair salons,
theatres, airways, workshops…everywhere. Understandably, queues are formed when there are
more arrivals than what the service facility can handle, and no queues are formed when the
arrivals less than that. The uncertainty of arrivals and the time they require for getting service
accounts for the fact at times there are long queues while at some other times there are no queues
at all. Further, it can be easily understood that the greater the average rate of arrivals for a given
rate of service which can be provided, the lengthier would the queues to be formed and more
would be the time required by a typical arrival to get service. Similarly, for a given rate of
arrivals, the greater the rate at which service can be provided, the smaller would the queues be
and the time needed to get service. However, one cannot quantify that for a given set of arrival
and service rates, how long the queues will generally be found and how much time a customer
will take to get the service. A study of queueing theory does that.
Specifically, the theory helps the manager to seek answer to the questions like the following
when actual/expected arrival and service rates are known and a set of assumption is made.
• What is the fraction of time the system providing service is expected to be busy (or,
idle)?

1
 • What are the chances of a certain number of customers present in the system at a random
point in time?
• On the average, how many customers are expected to be present in the system?
• What is the average length of queues formed from time to time?
• How much time a customer is expected to spend in the system – in waiting for getting the
service?
• How much time a customer typically spends in the queue?
• What is the expected total cost of providing service for various alternative service levels
and, accordingly, what is the optimal level of service to provide?
The queueing theory, also called the waiting line theory, owes its development to A K Erlang’s
efforts to analyze telephone traffic congestion with a view to satisfy the randomly arising
demand for the services of the Copenhagen automatic telephone system, in the year 1909. The
theory is applicable to situations where the ‘customers’ arrive at some ‘service station (s)’ for
some service; wait (occasionally not); and leave the system after getting the service. In such
‘arrival and departure’ problems, the customers might be people waiting to deposit their
electricity bills at a cash counter, machines waiting to be repaired in a factory’s repair shop, aero
planes waiting to land at an airport, patients in a hospital who need treatment…and so on. The
service stations in such problems are the cash counters in the electricity office, repairmen in the
shop, runways at the airport and doctors attending the patients, respectively. Some more
examples of queueing situations are given in the following table:
SITUATION ARRIVING CUSTOMERS SERVICE FACILITY
a) Passage of customers Shoppers Checkout counters
through a supermarket
check out
b) Flow of automobile traffic Automobiles Road network
through a road network
c) Transfer of electronic Electronic messages Transmission lines
messages
d) Banking transactions Bank patrons Bank tellers
e) Flow of computer Computer programmes Central processing unit
programmes through a
computer system
f) Sale of theatre tickets Theatre-goers Ticket booking windows
g) Arrival of trucks to carry Trucks Loading crews and facilities
fruits and vegetables from
a central market
h) Registration of Unemployment personnel Registrations assistants
unemployed at
employment exchange
i) Occurrences of fires Fires Firemen and equipment
j) Flow of ship to the sea Ships Harbor and docking facilities
2
 shore
k) Call at police control room Service calls Policemen
The waiting lines develop because the service to a customer may not be rendered immediately as
the customer reaches the service facility. Thus, lack of adequate service facility would cause
waiting line of customers to be formed. The only way that the service demand can be met with
ease is to increase the service capacity (and raising the efficiency of the existing capacity if
possible) to a higher level. The capacity might be built to such a high level as can always meet
the peak demand with no queues. But adding to capacity may be costly affair & uneconomic
after a stage because then it shall remain idle to varying degrees when there are no or few
customers. A manager therefore has to decide on an appropriate level of service which is neither
too low nor too high. Inefficient or poor service would cause excessive waiting which has a cost
in terms of customer frustration, loss of goodwill in the long run, direct cost of idle employees,
or loss associated with poor employee morale resulting from being idle. On the other hand, too
high a service level would result in very high set up cost and idle time for the service station(s).
Thus, the goal of queueing modeling is the achievement of an economic balance between the
cost of providing service and the cost associated with the wait required for that service.

Steady State: A steady state condition is said to prevail when the behaviour of the system
becomes independent of time.
Transient State: A system is said to be in “transient state” when its operating characteristics
(behaviour) are dependent on time.

GENERAL STRUCTURE OF QUEUING SYSTEM

The general structure of a queueing system is depicted in the following figure:
Input Customers leave
Population Queue Service System the system

Arrival
Process Queue Service Mechanism
Structure

We shall discuss in more details the various elements of a queueing system and then present
mathematical results for some specific systems. The elements of a system are:
(i) Arrival pattern/process
The arrival process or input process to a queueing system is often measured in terms of the
average number of arrivals per unit of time or by the average time between successive
arrivals.
According to the numbers: The customers may arrive for service individually or in groups.
Single arrivals are illustrated by customers visiting a beautician, students reaching at a library

3
 counter, and so on. On the other hand, families visiting restaurants, ship discharging cargo at
a dock are examples of bulk, or batch, arrivals.
According to time: Customers may arrive in the system at known (regular or otherwise)
times, or they might arrive in a random way. The queueing models wherein customers’
arrival times are known with certainty are categorized as deterministic models and are easier
to handle. On the other hand, a substantial majority of the queueing models are based on the
premise that the customers enter the system stochastically, at random points in time.
With random arrivals, the number of customers reaching the system per unit might be
described by a probability distribution. Generally, the queueing models are based on the
assumption that arrival pattern follows Poisson distribution.
(ii) Speed of service / service mechanism
In a queueing system, the speed with which service is provided can be expressed in either of
two ways – as service rate and as service time. The service rate describes the number of
customers serviced during particular time period. The service time indicates the amount of
time needed to service a customer. Service rates and times are reciprocals of each other and
either of them is sufficient to indicate the capacity of the facility. Thus, if a cashier can
attend, on the average, to 10 customers in an hour, the service rate would be expressed as 10
customers / hour and service time would be equal to 6 min/customer. Generally, however, we
consider the service time only.
If these service times are known exactly, the problem can be handled easily. But, as generally
happens, if these are different and not known with certainty, we have to consider the
distribution of the service times in order to analyze the queueing system. Generally, the
queueing models are based on the assumption based on the assumption that service times are
exponentially distributed.
(iii) Queue discipline
It refers to the manner by which customers are selected for service when a queue has formed.
The most common discipline that can be observed in everyday life is first come, first served
order, or first in, first out (FIFO), as it sometimes called some other in common usage are last
in last out (LIFO), which is applicable to many inventory systems when there is no
obsolescence in stored units as it is easier to reach the nearest items which are the last in;
selection for service in random order independent of the time of arrival to the queue (SIRO);
and a variety of priority schemes, where customers are given priorities upon entering the
system, the ones with higher priorities to be selected for service ahead of those with lower
priorities, regardless of their time of arrival to the system.
Another thing to consider in the queueing structure is the behaviour or attitude of the
customers entering the queueing system. On this basis, the customers may be classified as
being (a) patient, or (b) impatient. If the customers join a queue, when it exists, and waits till
they enter the service station for getting service, they are called patient customers. There may
be jockeying among the many queues, that is the customers may switch to other queues
which are moving ‘fast’, and also reneging is possible – when a customer stands in the queue

4
 for sometime & then leaves the system because it is working ‘to slowly’. There may also be
bribing or cheating by some customers for queue positions. Besides, some customers may,
upon their arrival, not join the queue for some reason and decide to return for service at a
later time. In terms of the queueing theory, this is known as balking, and occurs particularly
when there are limits on the time and the extent of storage capacity available to hold waiting
customers. In the queueing models that we consider, we shall assume that there is no balking
or jockeying and that the customers leave the system only after receiving, and not before.
(iv)Number of servers
The number of servers or service channels refers to the number of parallel service stations
which can service customers simultaneously. There can be single servers or multiple server
queueing system.
Customers Arriving Served customers leaving
OOOO Service OOOO
facility
Discouraged customers leaving
SINGLE CHANNEL SYSTEM

OOOO O

OOOO O

OOOO

OOOO O

(A) (B)

MULTIPLE CHANNEL SYSTEM

The two multichannel systems differ in that the first has a single queue, while the second
allows a queue for each channel. A barber shop with many chairs is an Example of the first
type of multichannel system, while number of queues before the railway counters is an
example of the second type of multichannel system.
(v) System capacity
In some queueing processes there is a physical limitation to the amount of waiting room, so
that when the line reaches a certain length, no further customers are allowed to enter, until
space becomes available by a service completion. These are referred to as finite queueing
situation; that is; there is a finite limit to the maximum queue size.
(vi)Size of the population
The source of customers for a queueing system can be infinite or finite. For example, all
people of a city or state (and others) could be the potential customers at a super bazaar. The
number of people being very large, it can be taken to the infinite. On the other hand, there are
many situations in business and industrial conditions where we cannot consider the
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 population to be infinite-it is finite. Thus, the ten machines in the factory requiring repairs
and maintenance by the maintenance crew would exemplify finite population.

OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEUEING SYSTEM

An analysis of a given queueing system involves a study of its different operating characteristics.
This is done using queueing models. Some of the more commonly considered characteristics are
discussed below.
1. Queue length – the average number of customers in the queue waiting to get service.
Large queues may indicate poor server performance while small queues may imply too
much server capacity.
2. System length – the average number of customers in the system, those waiting to be and
those being serviced. Large values of this statistic imply congestion and possible
customer dissatisfied and a potential need for greater service capacity.
3. Waiting time in the queue – the average time that a customer has to wait in the queue to
get service. Long waiting times are directly related to customer dissatisfaction and
potential loss of future revenues, while very small waiting times may indicate too much
service capacity.
4. Total time in the system – the average time that a customer spends in the system, from
entry in the queue to completion of service. Large values of this statistic are indicative of
the need to make adjustments in the capacity.
5. Server idle time – the relative frequency with which the service system is idle. Idle time
is directly related to cost. However reducing idle time may have adverse effects on the
other characteristics mentioned above.

KENDALL’S NOTATION FOR REPRESENTING QUEUEING MODELS

Generally queueing model may be completely specified in the following symbolic form:
(a/b/c) : (d/e)
The first and second symbols denote the type of distributions of inter arrival times and of inter
service times, respectively. Third symbol specifies the number of servers, whereas fourth symbol
stands for the capacity of the system and the last symbol denotes the queue discipline.
If we specify the following letters as:
M = Poisson arrival or departure distribution,
Ek = Erlangian or gamma inter-arrival for service time distribution,
GI = general input distribution
G = general service time distribution,
Then (M/M/1) : (∞/FCFS) defines a queueing system in which arrivals and service times both
follow Poisson distribution, single server, infinite capacity and “first come, first served queue
discipline.

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We now proceed to discuss some of the queueing models. It may be mentioned here that the
results obtained from various models are based on the assumption that the service system is
operating under equilibrium or steady state conditions.

QUEUEING MODELS
The queueing models can be categorized as being deterministic or probabilistic. If each customer
arrives at known intervals and the service time is known with certainty, the queueing model shall
be deterministic in nature. The vast majority of the queuing models are, however, based on the
assumption that one or more elements of the queuing system can be expressed only in
probabilistic terms. Hence, nearly all of the queueing models are of probabilistic type.

Deterministic Queueing Model

Let us first consider the case where the customers arrive in the queueing system at regular
intervals and the service time for each customer is known and constant.
Suppose that customers come to a bank’s teller counter every five minutes. Thus, the interval
between the arrivals of any two successive customers is exactly 5 minutes. Suppose further that
the banker takes exactly 5 minutes to serve a customer. Here the arrival and the service rates are
each equal to 12 customers per hour. In this situation there shall never be a queue and the banker
shall always be busy with work.
Now, suppose that the banker can serve 15 customers per hour. The consequence of this higher
service rate would be that the banker would be busy 4/5th of the time and idle in 1/5th of his time.
He shall take 4 minutes to serve a customer and wait for 1 minute for the next customer to come.
There would be, as before, no queue.
If, on the other hand, the banker can serve only 10 minutes per hour, then the result would be that
he would be always busy and the queue length will increase continuously without limit with the
passage of time. It is easy to visualize that when the service rate is less than the arrival rate, the
service facility cannot cope with all the arrivals and eventually the system leads to an explosive
situation. The problem in such situations can be resolved by providing additional service station
(s). Symbolically, let the arrival rate be λ customers per unit time and the service rate is µ
customers per unit time.
Then, if λ > µ the waiting line shall be formed which will increase indefinitely; the service
facility would always be busy; and the service system will eventually fail; and
If λ ≤ µ there shall be no waiting time; the proportion of time the service facility would be idle
λ
is 1 − .
µ
λ
The ratio = ρ is called the average utilization, or the traffic intensity, or the clearing ratio.
µ
For our present model,
If ρ >1, the system would ultimately fail, and
If ρ ≤ 1, the system works and ρ is the proportion of time it is busy.
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We can easily visu8alise that the condition of uniform arrival and uniform service rates has a
very limited practicability. Such conditions may exist when we are de3aling, for example, with
movements of items for processing in highly automated plants. However, generally, and more
particularly when human beings are involved, the arrivals and servicing time are variable and
uncertain. Thus, variable arrival rates and servicing times are the more realistic assumptions. The
probabilistic queueing models, as mentioned previously, are based on these assumptions.

Probabilistic Queueing Model

Of the numerous queueing models available, we shall consider the Poisson-exponential, single
server model-infinite-population model.
In this, the words ‘Poisson-exponential’ indicate that the customer arrivals follow Poisson
distribution while the service times are distributed exponentially. To recapitulate, if the arrivals
are independent, with the average arrival rate equal to λ per period of time, then, according to the
Poisson probability distribution, the probability that n customers will arrive in the system during
a given interval T, is given by the following:
e− m mn
P (n customers during period T) =
n!
λ
Where, m = T, and e = 2.7183.
The probability that the system is idle, i.e., there are no customers in the system, equals
P0 = 1 − ρ .
The probability of having exactly n customers in the system shall be:
Pn = ρ n (1 − ρ )
1
Mean inter-arrival time or the average time between the arrivals is .
λ
1
The average (expected) time for completing the service is
µ
Single server queuing model {(M/M/1): (∞/FCFS)} Exponential service – unlimited queue
This model is based on certain assumptions about the queuing system:
I. Arrivals are described by Poisson probability distribution and come from an infinite
population.
II. Single waiting line and each arrival waits to be served regardless of the length of the
queue (i.e. infinite capacity) and no balking or reneging.
III. Queue discipline is “first – come, first – served”.
IV. Single server and service times follow exponential distribution.
V. Customers’ arrival is independent but the arrival rate (average number of arrivals) does
not change over time.
VI. The average service rate is more than the average arrival rate.

MEASURES OF THE MODEL

8
 i. To find expected (average) number of units in the system, Ls i.e. the average number of
customers in the system both waiting and in service.
λ µ ρ
LS = = , whereρ = λ µ < 1
1− λ µ 1− ρ
ii. To find expected (average) queue length, Lq i.e. average number of customers waiting in
the queue.
λ ρ2
L q = LS − =
µ 1− ρ
iii. To find mean (or expected) waiting time in the queue (excluding service time), Wq i.e.
the average time spent by a customer in the queue before the commencement of his
service.
λ ρ
Wq = =
µ ( µ − λ ) µ (1 − ρ )
iv. To find expected waiting time in the system (including service time), Ws i.e. the total
time spent by a customer in the system.
1
WS =
µ −λ
v. To find expected waiting time of a customer who has to wait, (W | W > 0).
1
( W | W > 0) =
µ (1 − ρ )
vi. To find expected length of non-empty queue, (L | L > 0) or Lq’.
1
( L | L > 0) =
1− ρ
vii. To find out the variance of queue length.
ρ
Var.{n} =
(1 − ρ ) 2
Inter-Relationship between Ls, Lq, Ws, Wq.
Ls = λWs,
Lq = λWq,
Wq = Ws – 1/µ.
Lq = Ls – λ/µ.

LIMITATIONS FOR APPLICATION OF QUEUEING MODEL:

1. The single channel queueing model can be fitted in situations where the following
conditions are satisfied.
2. The service time has exponential distribution. The average service rate is denoted by μ.
3. Arrivals are from infinite population.
4. The queue discipline is FCFS i.e. the customers are served on first come, first served
basis.
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 5. There is only a single service station.
6. The mean arrival rate is less than the mean service rate, i.e. λ < µ.
7. The waiting space available for customers in the queue is infinite.
The single channel queueing model is the simplest model which is based on the above mentioned
assumptions. But, in reality there are several limitations of this mode in its application. One
obvious limitation is the possibility that the waiting space, in fact, be limited. Other possibility is
that arrival rate is state dependent. That is, potential customers are discouraged from entering the
queue if they observe the long line at the time they arrive. Another practical limitation of this
model is that the arrival process is not stationary. It is quite possible that the service station
would experience peak period, and slack periods during which the arrival rate is higher and
lower respectively than the overall average. These could occur at particular times during a day a
week or particular weeks during a year. The population of customers may be finite; the queue
discipline may not be FCFS. In general, the validity of these models depends on the assumptions
that are often unrealistic in practice.
Even when the assumptions are realistic, there is another limitation of queueing theory that is
often overlooked. Queueing models give steady state solution, i.e. the model tells us what will
happen after queueing system has been in operation long enough to eliminate the effects of
starting with an empty queue at the beginning of each business day. In some applications, the
queueing system never reaches a steady state, so the model solutions are of little importance.

Q1. Arrivals at a telephone booth are considered to be Poisson, with an average time of 10
minutes between one arrival and the next. The length of a phone call assumed to be
distributed exponentially with mean 3 minutes. Then,
(a) What is the probability that a person arriving at the booth will have to wait?
(b) What is the average length of the queues that form from time to time?
(c) What is the average length of the queue?
(d) The telephone department will install a second booth when convinced that an arrival
would expect to have to wait at least 3 minutes for the phone. By how much must the
flow of arrivals be increased in order to justify a second booth?
(e) Find the probability that an arrival finds that 4 persons are waiting for their turn.
(f) Find the average number of persons waiting and making telephone calls.
1 1
Ans Here, λ = and µ =
10 3
λ 1 3 3
(a) P(W > 0) = 1 − P0 = = × = = 0.3
µ 10 1 10
(b) The average length of non empty queues or expected number of customers in the non empty
queue.

10
 1
µ
(L | L > 0) = Lq, = = 3 = 1.43 ≈ 1 Person
µ −λ 1 − 1
3 10
(c) The average length of queues (empty + non-empty) or expected number of customers in the
queue.
2
1
ρ 2   9
=  =
3
Lq = ≈ 0 Customers
1− ρ 1 70
1−
3
λ
(d) Wq =
µ (µ − λ )
1
Since Wq = 3, µ = , λ = λ ' (say) for sec ond booth
3
λ '
∴3 = , giving λ ' = 0.16.
11 '
 −λ 
33 
As, λ = 0.16 ⇒ λ ' = 0.16 × 60 = 9.6 ≈ 10customers / hour
'

Thus, as soon as the arrival rate increases to 10 customers/hour, another booth may be installed.
(e)With 4 people waiting for their turn in the queue implies a total of 5 people in the system.
Thus, the probability that an arrival finds 4 persons in the queue is,
P ( n = 5 ) = ρ n (1 − ρ )
= 0.35 (1 − 0.3)
= 0.0017
(f) The average number of people waiting and making calls is given by the expected length
of the system. Thus,
ρ
Ls =
1− ρ
0.3
= = 0.43
1 − 0.3
Q2. Customers arrive at a sales counter manned by a single person according to a Poisson
process with a mean rate of 20 per hour. The time required to serve a customer has an
exponential distribution with a mean of 100 seconds. Find the average waiting time of a
customer.
Ans Here we are given:
60 × 60
λ = 20 per hour and µ = = 36 per hour
100
The average waiting time of a customer in the queue is given by:
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 λ 20 5 5 × 3600
Wq = = = hours or ,i.e.,125sec onds.
µ ( µ − λ ) 36(36 − 20) 36 × 4 36 × 4
The average waiting time of a customer in the system is given by:
1 1 1
Ws = = or hour i.e., 225sec onds.
µ − λ (36 − 20) 16

Q3. Customers arrive at a one-window drive according to a Poisson distribution with mean
of 10 minutes and service time per customer is exponential with mean of 6 minutes. The
space in front of the window can accommodate only three vehicles including the serviced
one. Other vehicles have to wait outside this space. Calculate:
(i) Probability that an arriving customer can drive directly to the space in front of the
window.
(ii) Probability that an arriving customer will have to wait outside the directed space.
(iii) How long an arriving customer is expected to wait before getting the service?
Ans From the given information, we find that:
Mean arrival rate, λ = 6 customers per hour
And mean service rate, µ = 10 customers per hour
(i) Probability that an arriving customer can drive directly to the space in front of the
window is given by:
2
 λ λ λ λ  λ
P0 + P1 + P2 = 1 −  + 1 −  +   1 − 
 µ µ µ µ  µ
 λ  λ  λ  
2

= 1 −  1 + +   
 µ   µ  µ  
6  6  6 
2
 98
= 1 −  1 + +    = or 0.784
 10   10  10   1225
(ii) Probability that an arriving customer will have to wait outside the directed space is given
by: 1 − (P0 + P1 + P2 ) = 1 − 0.784 = 0.216 or 21.6%
(iii) Expected waiting time of a customer being getting the service is given by:
λ 6 3
Wq = = = hour or 9 min utes.
µ ( µ − λ ) 10(10 − 6) 20

Q4. A company distributes its products by trucks loaded at its only loading station. Both,
company’s trucks and contractor’s trucks, are used for this purpose. It was found out that
on an average every 5 minutes, one truck arrived and the average loading time was three
minutes. 50% of the trucks belong to the contractor. Find out:
(i) The probability that a truck has to wait,
(ii) The waiting time of truck that waits, and

12
(iii) The expected waiting time of contractor’s trucks per day, assuming a 24-hours shift.
Ans Here we are given:
60
Average arrival rate of trucks, λ = = 12 trucks/hr.
5
60
Average service rate of trucks, µ = = 20 trucks/hr.
3
(i) The probability that a truck has to wait is given by:
λ 12
ρ= = = 0.6
µ 20
(ii) The waiting time of a truck that waits is given by:
1 1 1
Ws = = = hour i.e., 7.5 min utes.
µ − λ (20 − 12) 8
(iii)The expected waiting time of contractor’s trucks per day, assuming a 24-hours shift is
given by:
(No. of trucks per day) x (Contractor’s percentage) x (Expected waiting time of a truck)
50 λ
= 12 × 24 × ×
100 µ ( µ − λ )
1 12 54
= 288 × × = or 10.8 hrs.
2 20 × 8 5

Q5. Customers arrive at the First Class Ticket counter of a Theatre at a rate of 12 per
hour. There is one clerk serving the customers at a rate of 30 per hour.
(i) What is the probability that there is no customer in the counter (i.e. the system is
idle)?
(ii) What is the probability that there are more than 2 customers in the counter?
(iii) What is the probability that there is no customer waiting to be served?
(iv) What is the probability that a customer is being served and nobody is waiting?
Ans From the given information, we find that:
Mean arrival rate, λ = 12 customers per hour
And mean service rate, µ = 30 customers per hour
λ 12
∴ρ= = = 0.4
µ 30
(i) P (system is idle) = P0 = 1 − ρ = 1 − 0.4 = 0.6 .
(ii) P(n>2) = 1–P(n ≤ 2)

13
  λ  λ  λ   λ  2  λ  
= 1 − [ P0 + P1 + P2 ] = 1 −  1 −  +  1 −  +    1 −  
 µ  µ  µ   µ   µ  
 λ   λ  λ  2  
= 1 −  1 −  1 + +    
 µ   µ  µ   

= 1 − ( 1 − ρ ) 1 + ρ + ( ρ )  
2

  
= 1 − ( 1 − 0.4 ) 1 + 0.4 + ( 0.4 )  
2

  
= 1 − 0.6 × 1.56
= 1 − 0.936
= 0.064
Also, P(> n) = ρ n +1
∴ P(> 2) = 0.42+1 = 0.43 = 0.064
(iii)P(no customer waiting to be served) = P0 + P1
= 0.6 + 0.24 = 0.84
λ λ
(iv) P (a customer is being served and none is waiting) = P 1 = 1− = ρ (1 − ρ ) = 0.4 x
µ  µ 
0.6 = 0.24.

Q6. A TV repairman finds that the time spent on his job has an exponential distribution
with mean 30 minutes. If he repairs sets in the order in which they come and if the arrival
of sets is approximately Poisson with an average rate of 10 per 8-hour day, what is his
expected idle time each day? How many jobs are ahead of the set just brought in?
Ans From the given information, we find that:
Mean arrival rate, λ = 10 sets per day.
And mean service rate, µ = 16 sets per day.
λ 10 5
∴ρ= = =
µ 16 8
5 3
P (repairman is idle) = P0 = 1 − ρ = 1 − = .
8 8
3
∴ Expected idle time per day = 8 × = 3 hours.
8
To determine the expected number of sets ahead of the set just brought in, we shall find the
expected number of sets in the system. Thus,

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 5
ρ 5 2
Ls = = 8 = = 1 sets .
1− ρ 5 3 3
1−
8

Q7. Assume that at a bank teller window the customers arrive in their cars at the average
rate of 20 per hour according to a Poisson distribution. Assume also that the bank teller
spends an average of 2 minutes per customer to complete a service, and the service time is
exponentially distributed. Customers, who arrive from an infinite population, are served
on a FCFS basis, and there is no limit to possible queue length.
(i) What is the expected waiting time in the system per customer?
(ii) What is the mean number of customers waiting in the system?
(iii) What is the probability of zero customers in the system?
(iv) What value is the utilization factor?
Ans From the given information, we find that:
Mean arrival rate, λ = 20 customers per hour
And mean service rate, µ = 30 customers per hour
λ 20 2
∴ρ= = =
µ 30 3
(i) Expected waiting time in the system per customer is given by:
1 1 1
Ws = = = hour i.e., 6 min utes.
µ − λ (30 − 20) 10
(ii) Mean number of customers waiting in the system is given by:
2
2
ρ 2   4
=  =
3
Lq =
1− ρ 2 3
1−
3
2 1
(iii)Probability of zero customers in the system is given by P0 = 1 − ρ = 1 − = .
3 3
2
(iv) Utilization factor, ρ = .
3

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