A Note on Marginal Allocation in Multiple-Server Service Systems.

Alan J. Rolfe

Expert InsightsPublished 1970

Numerical experiments concerning the marginal allocation of servers to facilities to minimize the expected queueing time of customers in a service system. In a service system composed of N facilities, the i-th facility consists of channels that serve customers in the order of their arrival. If all channels are busy, customers wait for service. Customers arrive at facility i according to an exponential interarrival distribution, while their service times have either an exponential or constant distribution. The N facilities are tied together, however, by an overall manpower constraint defined in terms of facilities and channels. The marginal allocation developed in P-3288-1, [Discrete Optimization via Marginal] [Analysis], provides an optimal and easily implemented solution for constant service times; it may also be optimal for exponential service times. 7 pp. Ref.

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Rolfe, Alan J., A Note on Marginal Allocation in Multiple-Server Service Systems. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1970. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4393.html.
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