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TEST 2 SOLUTIONS
Question 1
a) With regards to queuing models, briefly explain any four (4) assumptions of the pre-emptive
priority model [8]
- The lowest priority customer being served is preempted (ejected back into the queue)
whenever a higher priority customer enters the queuing system.
- For priority class i (i = 1, 2… n), the inter-arrival times of the customers in that class have an
exponential distribution with a mean of 1/λi.
- All service times have an exponential distribution with a mean of 1/µ, regardless of the
priority class involved.
- The queuing system has a single server.
b) Explain any three (3) strengths of the Monte Carlo simulation problem solving technique over
analytical methods. [6]
Question 2
There are two workers competing for a job. Peter claims an average service time which is faster
than John’s, but John claims to be more consistent, if not as fast. The arrivals occur according to
a Poisson process at a rate of λ = 2 per hour (1/30 per minute). Peter’s statistics are an average
service time of 24 minutes with a standard deviation of 20 minutes. John’s service statistics are
an average service time of 25 minutes, but a standard deviation of only 2 minutes. If the average
length of the queue is the criterion for hiring, which worker should be hired? [12]
Solution
For Peter,
= 1/30 (per min),
= 24 (min),
= / 24/30
20 = 400(min )
L = { (1+20 x )} / {2 (1 – 0.8)}
q
= 2.711 (customers)
For John,
= 1/30 (per min),
= 25 (min),
= / 25/30
2 = 4(min )
L = { (1+2 x )} / {2 (1 – 0.83)}
q
= 2.097 (customers)
Although working faster on the average, Peter’s greater service variability results in an
average queue length about 30% greater than John’s. On the other hand, the proportion of
arrivals who would find Peter idle and thus experience no delay is P = 1 - = 1 / 5 = 20%,
0
while the proportion who would find John idle and thus experience no delay is P = 1 - =
0
1 / 6 = 16.7%. On the basis of average queue length, Lq, John wins.
Question 3
(a) A queuing system has two servers whose service times are independent random variables with an
exponential distribution with a mean of 15 minutes. Customer X arrives when both servers are
idle. Five minutes later, customer Y arrives and customer X still is being served. Another 10
minutes later, customer Z arrives and both customer X and Y are still being served. No other
customer arrived during this 15-minute interval.
(i) What is the probability that customer X will complete service before customer Y? Explain
your answer. [5]
By the lack-of-memory property of the exponential distribution, when customer Y arrives,
the remaining time until customer X completes service has the same distribution as the
service time for customer Y, so they are equally likely to finish first. Thus the probability
that customer X will complete service before customer Y is 0.5.
(ii) What is the probability that customer Z will complete service before customer X?
Explain your answer. [5]
Customer Z cannot begin service until either customer X or customer Y completes service.
Given that customer Y completes service first, which has probability of 0.5 from (i), then the
reasoning of part (i) implies that the probability that customer Z completes service before
customer X is 0.5. Therefore the unconditional probability that customer Z will complete
service before customer X is 0.5x0.5 = 0.25.
Question 4
(a) OR2 Bank always has two tellers on duty. Customers arrive to receive service from a teller at a
mean rate of 40 per hour. A teller requires an average of 2 minutes to serve a customer. When
both tellers are busy, an arriving customer joins a single line to wait for service. Experience has
shown that customers wait in line an average of 1 minute before service begins. Determine the
following measures of performance:
(i) Expected waiting time in the system for an individual customer, W [3]
W = Wq + 1/μ = 1 +1/30 = 1.033
(ii) Expected number of customers in the queue, Lq [3]
Lq = λWq = 40x0.01667 = 0.6668
(iii) Utilization factor,ρ [3]
ρ = λ/sμ = 40/(2x30) = 0.6667
FORMULA SHEET
Steady-state parameters of the M/G/1 queue
/ , P0 1
2 (1 2 2 ) 2 (1 2 2 )
L , LQ
2(1 ) 2(1 )
(1 / 2 2 )
1 (1 / 2 2 )
w , wQ
2(1 ) 2(1 )
2 2 2
LQ
2(1 ) 2(1 )