Simulation of a stochastic model for a service system

Abstract

In this paper we simulate a queueing model useful in a service system with the help of ARENA simulation software. The service calls (henceforth referred to as customers) arrive to a processing center according to a Markovian arrival process (MAP). There is a buffer of finite size to hold the customers. Any customer finding the buffer is considered lost. An arriving customer belongs to one of three types, and the admitted customer is served by one of many dedicated servers (exclusively set aside for each of the three types of customers) or by one of many flexible servers who are capable of servicing all types of customers. The flexible servers are used only when the respective dedicated servers are all busy. A priority scheme is used to select the type of customer from the buffer when a flexible server is called for servicing the waiting customers. The processing times are assumed to be of phase type. Simulated results are discussed.