Discrete-time queues with discretionary priorities

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a discrete-time two-class discretionary priority queueing model with generally distributed service times and per slot i.i.d. structured inputs in which preemptions are allowed only when the elapsed service time of a lower-class customer being served does not exceed a certain threshold. As the preemption mode of the discretionary priority discipline, we consider the Preemptive Resume, Preemptive Repeat Different, and Preemptive Repeat Identical modes. We derive the Probability Generating Functions (PGFs) and first moments of queue lengths of each class in this model for all the three preemption modes in a unified manner. The obtained results include all the previous works on discrete-time priority queueing models with general service times and structured inputs as their special cases. A numerical example shows that, using the discretionary priority discipline, we can more subtly adjust the system performances than is possible using either the pure non-preemptive or the preemptive priority disciplines. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.