This paper is devoted to the study of a clearing queueing system with a special discipline. As soon as the server receives N negative feedbacks from customers, all present customers are forced to leave the system and the server undergoes a maintenance procedure. After an exponential maintenance time, the system resumes its service immediately. Using the matrix analytic method, we derive the steady-state distributions, which are then used for the computation of other performance measures. Furthermore, using first step analysis, we obtain the Laplace–Stieltjes transform of the sojourn time of an arbitrary customer. We also study the busy period of the system and derive the generating function of the total number of lost customers in a busy period. Finally, we investigate a long-run rate of cost and explore the optimal N value that minimizes the total cost per unit time. We also present some numerical examples to illustrate the impact of several model parameters to the performance measures.

We show that under some slight assumptions, the positive sojourn time of a product of symmetric processes converges towards ½ as the number of processes increases. Monotony properties are then exhibited in the case of symmetric stable processes, and used, via a recurrence relation, to obtain upper and lower bounds on the moments of the occupation time (in the first and third quadrants) for two-dimensional Brownian motion. Explicit values are also given for the second and third moments in the n-dimensional Brownian case.

We consider random variables observed at arrival times of a renewal process, which possibly depends on those observations and has regularly varying steps with infinite mean. Due to the dependence and heavy-tailed steps, the limiting behavior of extreme observations until a given time t tends to be rather involved. We describe the asymptotics and extend several partial results which appeared in this setting. The theory is applied to determine the asymptotic distribution of maximal excursions and sojourn times for continuous-time random walks.

In this paper we consider time-changed models of population evolution Xf(t) = X(Hf(t)), where X is a counting process and Hf is a subordinator with Laplace exponent f. In the case where X is a pure birth process, we study the form of the distribution, the intertimes between successive jumps, and the condition of explosion (also in the case of killed subordinators). We also investigate the case where X represents a death process (linear or sublinear) and study the extinction probabilities as a function of the initial population size n0. Finally, the subordinated linear birth–death process is considered. Special attention is devoted to the case where birth and death rates coincide; the sojourn times are also analysed.

We consider a single-server queue with Poisson input operating under first-come–first-served (FCFS) or last-come–first-served (LCFS) disciplines. The service times of the customers are independent and obey a general distribution. The system is subject to costs for holding a customer per unit of time, which can be customer specific or customer class specific. We give general expressions for the corresponding value functions, which have elementary compact forms, similar to the Pollaczek–Khinchine mean value formulae. The results generalize earlier work where similar expressions have been obtained for specific service time distributions. The obtained value functions can be readily applied to develop nearly optimal dispatching policies for a broad range of systems with parallel queues, including multiclass scenarios and the cases where service time estimates are available.

Let (Sk)k≥1 be the classical Bernoulli random walk on the integer line with jump parametersp ∈ (0,1) andq = 1 − p. The probability distribution of the sojourntime of the walk in the set of non-negative integers up to a fixed time is well-known, butits expression is not simple. By modifying slightly this sojourn time through a particularcounting process of the zeros of the walk as done by Chung & Feller [Proc.Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 35 (1949) 605–608], simpler representationsmay be obtained for its probability distribution. In the aforementioned article, only thesymmetric case (p = q = 1/2) isconsidered. This is the discrete counterpart to the famous Paul Lévy’s arcsine law forBrownian motion.

In the present paper, we write out a representation for this probabilitydistribution in the general case together with others related to the random walk subjectto a possible conditioning. The main tool is the use of generating functions.

We consider single-server queues with exponentially distributed service times, in which the arrival process is governed by a semi-Markov process (SMP). Two service disciplines, processor sharing (PS) and random service (RS), are investigated. We note that the sojourn time distribution of a type-l customer who, upon his arrival, meets k customers already present in the SMP/M/1/PS queue is identical to the waiting time distribution of a type-l customer who, upon his arrival, meets k+1 customers already present in the SMP/M/1/RS queue. Two sets of system equations, one for the joint transform of the sojourn time and queue size distributions in the SMP/M/1/PS queue, and the other for the joint transform of the waiting time and queue size distributions in the SMP/M/1/RS queue, are derived. Using these equations, the mean sojourn time in the SMP/M/1/PS queue and the mean waiting time in the SMP/M/1/RS queue are obtained. We also consider a special case of the SMP in which the interarrival time distribution is determined only by the type of the customer who has most recently arrived. Numerical examples are also presented.

The sojourn time that a Markov chain spends in a subset E of its state space has a distribution that depends on the hitting distribution on E and the probabilities (resp. rates in the continuous-time case) that govern the transitions within E. In this note we characterise the set of all hitting distributions for which the sojourn time distribution is geometric (resp. exponential).

Existence and finiteness of the sample-mean limit of sojourn times of jobs in a queueing system are investigated. The queueing system operates under rather general multiprocessor disciplines allowing job classes and priorities. The input stream of jobs consisting of job classes and interarrival and processing times is stationary and ergodic and may contain batch arrivals. Existence of the sample-mean limit is proved by means of the superadditive ergodic theorem, and its finiteness is controlled by uniform mixing of the input stream.

A three-stage real diffusion process is used as a model of the T-cell count of an HIV-positive individual who is to receive antiviral therapy such as AZT. The ‘quality of life' of such a person is identified as the sojourn time of the diffusion process above a certain critical T-cell level c. The time of introducing therapy is defined as the first-passage time of the diffusion to a prescribed level z > c. The distribution of the sojourn time of the diffusion above the level c depends on the level z at which therapy is initiated. The expected sojourn time is explicitly computed as a function of z for the particular diffusion process defining the model. There is a simple criterion for determining when to start therapy as early as possible.

Rubino and Sericola (1989c) derived expressions for the mth sojourn time distribution associated with a subset of the state space of a homogeneous irreducible Markov chain for both the discrete- and continuous-parameter cases. In the present paper, it is shown that a suitable probabilistic reasoning using absorbing Markov chains can be used to obtain respectively the probability mass function and the cumulative distribution function of the joint distribution of the first m sojourn times. A concise derivation of the continuous-time result is achieved by deducing it from the discrete-time formulation by time discretization. Generalizing some further recent results by Rubino and Sericola (1991), the joint distribution of sojourn times for absorbing Markov chains is also derived. As a numerical example, the model of a fault-tolerant multiprocessor system is considered.

This paper examines a general performance measure for queueing systems. This criterion reflects both the mean and the variance of sojourn times; the standard deviation is a special case. The measure plays a key role in certain production models, and it should be useful in a variety of other applications.

We focus here on convexity properties of an approximation of the measure for the M/G/c queue. For c ≧ 2 we show that this quantity is convex in the arrival rate. Assuming the service rate acts as a scale factor in the service-time distribution, the measure is convex in the service rate also.

Starting from the theory of point processes the concept of a process with an embedded marked point process is defined. It is shown that the known formula expressing the relation between the stationary and synchronous version of a regenerative process remains valid without the assumption of independence of cycles. General formulae for stationary availability and interval reliability of complex systems with repair are also obtained. In this way generalizations of Keilson's results for Markovian systems and Ross's results for systems with separately maintained elements are presented. The formulae are applied to a two-unit parallel system with a single repair facility.

This paper considers a queueing system consisting of two single-server queues in series, in which the service times of an arbitrary customer at both queues are identical. Customers arrive at the first queue according to a Poisson process.

Of this model, which is of importance in modern network design, a rather complete analysis will be given. The results include necessary and sufficient conditions for stationarity of the tandem system, expressions for the joint stationary distributions of the actual waiting times at both queues and of the virtual waiting times at both queues, and explicit expressions (i.e., not in transform form) for the stationary distributions of the sojourn times and of the actual and virtual waiting times at the second queue.

In Part II (pp. 644–659) these results will be used to obtain asymptotic and numerical results, which will provide more insight into the general phenomenon of tandem queueing with correlated service times at the consecutive queues.

This paper is devoted to the practical implications of the theoretical results obtained in Part I [1] for queueing systems consisting of two single-server queues in series in which the service times of an arbitrary customer at both queues are identical. For this purpose some tables and graphs are included. A comparison is made—mainly by numerical and asymptotic techniques—between the following two phenomena: (i) the queueing behaviour at the second counter of the two-stage tandem queue and (ii) the queueing behaviour at a single-server queue with the same offered (Poisson) traffic as the first counter and the same service-time distribution as the second counter. This comparison makes it possible to assess the influence of the first counter on the queueing behaviour at the second counter. In particular we note that placing the first counter in front of the second counter in heavy traffic significantly reduces both the mean and variance of the total time spent in the second system.