Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2016
The purpose of this letter is to study a modified GI/G/1 queueing system in which the server becomes unavailable for (independent) random periods each time he is free. This problem was first studied by Gelenbe and Iasnogorodski [6] who obtained the stationary law of the waiting time of a customer. We construct a simple probabilistic model coupling a G//G/1 queue with an autonomous server (in Borovkov's terminology [1]) with a GI/G/1 queue of classical type having the same characteristics, to compare them stochastically. We prove that the waiting time is a Markov chain, using a renewal process property which has not previously been noted.