This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lin, K. Y. Articles by Ross, S. M. Search for Related Content

Admission Control with Incomplete Information of a Queueing System

Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
kylin{at}vt.edu
ross{at}ieor.berkeley.edu

We consider a multiple-server loss model where customers arrive at a gatekeeper according to a Poisson process. A costcis incurred if a new arrival is blocked from entering the system by the gatekeeper, while a larger costKis incurred if an admitted customer finds all servers busy and therefore has to leave the system. The key assumption is that the gatekeeper is informed when an admitted customer finds all servers busy, but is not informed when served customers depart. Assuming an exponential service distribution, we show that, in the case of a single server, a threshold-type policy that blocks for a certain amount of time after a new arrival is admitted is optimal. When there are multiple servers, we propose two types of heuristic policies. We analytically compute the best policy of the first type, and use simulation to estimate that of the other.

Subject classifications: Dynamic programming/optimal control: applications in queueing systems; Queues: admission control, optimal and heuristic policies.
History: Received June 2001; revision received September 2002; accepted September 2002.