M/M/c balking retrial queue with vacation

Abstract

This paper deals with an M/M/c balking retrial queue with vacation. Both single and multiple vacation policies are analysed. This system is investigated as a quasi-birth-and-death process. Using the matrix-geometric method, we derive the useful formulae for computing the rate matrix and stationary probabilities. Various system performance measures are further developed in the matrix-form expressions. We construct a cost function to determine the optimum value of servers and the optimum mean service rate subject to the stability condition at minimum cost. Quasi-Newton method, Nelder–Mead simplex method and simulated annealing method are employed to perform the optimization tasks. Under optimum operating conditions, we provide the numerical results for a comparison of vacation policies. An application example is given to illustrate the system’s potential applicability.

Keywords:

• Retrial queueing
• vacation
• balking
• matrix-analytical method
• optimization

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the constructive comments of editors and the anonymous reviewers.