Introduction

Abstract

A queueing system is a system in which items come to be processed. The words “item” and “processing” are generic terms. An “item” could refer to customers. They could be customers arriving at a system such as a bank to receive service (be “processed”). Another example is in a manufacturing setting where an item could be a partially completed part that needs to be machined and is thus sent to a station where it is duly processed when possible. Most of us go through city streets driving vehicles or as passengers in a vehicle. A vehicle going through a signalized intersection is an item that needs to be served and the service is provided by the intersection in the form of giving it a green light to go through. The type of queueing systems of interest to us in this book are the types encountered in a communication system.