Letter to the Editor—A Family of Queuing Problems

Abstract

Operational situations involving waiting lines differ from each other primarily in the number of service channels available and in the statistics of the service process. Other differences are possible, such as the occurrence of a non-Poisson arrival pattern or the imposition of priorities (A. Cobham, J. Opns. Res. Soc. Am. 2 , 70 (1954).) but such differences are less frequent. Consequently it appears likely that a two-parameter family of queuing problems, one parameter being the number a of service channels and the other parameter specifying the statistics of the service process, would correspond to most of the waiting-line situations ordinarily encountered. Operations Research , ISSN 0030-364X, was published as Journal of the Operations Research Society of America from 1952 to 1955 under ISSN 0096-3984.