We consider the standard single-server queue with unlimited waiting space and the first-in first-out service discipline, but without any explicit independence conditions on the interarrival and service times. We find conditions for the steady-state waiting-time distribution to have small-tail asymptotics of the form x - 1 logP(W > x) - q * as x for q * > 0. We require only stationarity of the basic sequence of service times minus interarrival times and a Ga .. rtnerEllis condition for the cumulant generating function of the associated partial sums, i.e., n - 1 log Ee qS n y(q) as n , plus regularity conditions on the decay rate function y. The asymptotic decay rate q * is the root of the equation y(q) = 0. This result in turn implies a corresponding asymptotic result for the steady-state workload in a queue with general nondecreasing input. This asymptotic result covers the case of multiple independent sources, so that it provides additional theoretical support for a concept of effective bandwidths for admission control in multi-class queues based on asymptotic decay rates.

It is common to classify scheduling policies based on their mean response times. Another important, but sometimes opposing, performance metric is a scheduling policy’s fairness. For example, a policy that biases towards short jobs so as to minimize mean response time, may end up being unfair to long jobs. In this paper we define three types of unfairness and demonstrate large classes of scheduling policies that fall into each type. We end with a discussion on which jobs are the ones being treated unfairly. 1

We consider the standard GI/G/1 queue with unlimited waiting room and the first-in first-out service discipline. We investigate the steady-state waiting-time tail probabilities P(W> x) when the service-time distribution has a long-tail distribution, i.e., when the service-time distribution fails to have a finite moment generating function. We have developed algorithms for computing the waiting-time distribution by Laplace transform inversion when the Laplace transforms of the interarrival-time and service-time distributions are known. One algorithm, exploiting Pollaczek’s classical contour-integral representation of the Laplace transform, does not require that either of these transforms be rational. To facilitate such calculations, we introduce a convenient two-parameter family of long-tail distributions on the positive half line with explicit Laplace transforms. This family is a Pareto mixture of exponential (PME) distributions. These PME distributions have monotone densities and Pareto-like tails, i.e., are of order x − r for r> 1. We use this family of long-tail distributions to investigate the quality of approximations based on asymptotics for P(W> x) as x → ∞. We show that the asymptotic approximations with these long-tail service-time distributions can be remarkably inaccurate for typical x values of interest. We also derive multi-term asymptotic expansions for the waiting-time tail probabilities in the M/G/1 queue. Even three terms of this expansion can be remarkably inaccurate for typical x values of interest. Thus, we evidently must rely on numerical algorithms for determining the waiting-time tail probabilities in this case. When working with service-time data, we suggest using empirical Laplace transforms.

In this paper, we focus on simple exponential approximations for steady-state tail probabilities in G/GI/1 queues based on large-time asymptotics. We relate the large-time asymptotics for the steady-state waiting time, sojourn time and workload. We evaluate the exponential approximations based on the exact asymptotic parameters and their approximations by making comparisons with exact numerical results for BMAP/GI/1 queues. Numerical examples show that the exponential approximations are remarkably accurate at the 90 th percentile and beyond. Key words: queues; approximations; asymptotics; tail probabilities; sojourn time and workload.

The theory of large deviations provides a simple unified basis for statistical mechanics, information theory and queueing theory. The objective of this paper is to use large deviation theory and the Laplace method of integration to provide an simple intuitive overview of the recently developed theory of effective bandwidth for high speed digital networks, especially ATM networks. This includes (i) identification of the appropriate energy function, entropy function and effective bandwidth function of a source, (ii) the calculus of the effective bandwidth functions, (iii) bandwidth allocation and buffer management, (iv) traffic descriptors, and (v) envelope processes and conjugate processes for fast simulations and bounds.

The growing trend in computer systems towards using scheduling policies that prioritize jobs with small service requirements has resulted in a new focus on the fairness of such policies. In particular, researchers have been interested in whether prioritizing small job sizes results in large jobs being treated “unfairly.” However, fairness is an amorphous concept and thus difficult to define and study. This article provides a short survey of recent work in this area.

We establish a heavy-traffic asymptotic expansion (in powers of one minus the traffic intensity) for the asymptotic decay rates of queue-length and workload tail probabilities in stable infinite-capacity multi-channel queues. The specific model has multiple independent heterogeneous servers, each with i.i.d. service times, that are independent of the arrival process, which is the superposition of independent non-identical renewal processes. Customers are assigned to the first available server in the order of arrival. The heavy-traffic expansion yields relatively simple approximations for the tails of steady-state distributions and higher percentiles, yielding insight into the impact of the first three moments of the defining distributions.

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Motivated by extreme-value engineering in service systems, we develop and evaluate simple approximations for the distributions of maximum values of queueing processes over large time intervals. We provide approximations for several different processes, such as the waiting times of successive customers, the remaining workload at an arbitrary time, and the queue length at an arbitrary time, in a variety of models. All our approximations are based on extreme-value limit theorems. Our first approach is to approximate the queueing process by one-dimensional reflected Brownian motion (RBM). We then apply the extreme-value limit for RBM, which we derive here. Our second approach starts from exponential asymptotics for the tail of the steadystate distribution. We obtain an approximation by relating the given process to an associated sequence of i.i.d. random variables with the same asymptotic exponential tail. We use estimates of the asymptotic variance of the queueing process to determine an approximate number of variables in this associated i.i.d. sequence. Our third approach is to simplify GI/G/1 extremevalue limiting formulas in Iglehart (1972) by approximating the distribution of an idle period by the stationary-excess distribution of an interarrival time. We use simulation to evaluate the quality of these approximations for the maximum workload. From the simulations, we obtain a rough estimate of the time when the extreme value limit theorems begin to yield good approximations.

Motivated by interest in making delay announcements to arriving customers who must wait in call centers and related service systems, we study the performance of alternative real-time delay estimators based on recent customer delay experience. The main estimators considered are: (i) the delay of the last customer to enter service (LES), (ii) the delay experienced so far by the customer at the head of the line (HOL), and (iii) the delay experienced by the customer to have arrived most recently among those who have already completed service (RCS). We compare these delay-history estimators to the estimator based on the queue length (QL), which requires knowledge of the mean interval between successive service completions in addition to the queue length. We characterize performance by the mean squared error (MSE). We do analysis and conduct simulations for the standard GI/M/s multi-server queueing model, emphasizing the case of large s. We obtain analytical results for the conditional distribution of the delay given the observed HOL delay. An approximation to its mean value serves as a refined estimator. For all three candidate delay estimators, the MSE relative to the square of the mean is asymptotically negligible in the many-server and classical heavy-traffic limiting regimes.