COMPARING OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEUES IN WHICH CUSTOMERS REQUIRE A RANDOM NUMBER OF SERVERS.

An examination is made of the relative effects of several service order disciplines on important operating characteristics of queues in which customers request a random number of servers. This class of queues is characterized by customers who cannot begin service until all required servers are available. It is shown that for many systems in this class, it is possible to define a new service order discipline which is more efficient than FIFO with respect to one or more measures such as expected waiting time, probability of delay, etc.