Maximizing Throughput in Finite-Source Parallel Queue Systems

European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 217, Issue 3, 16 March 2012, pp. 554–559

University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2013-196

Posted: 28 Jun 2013

See all articles by Mohammadmorteza Delasay

Mohammadmorteza Delasay

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems

Bora Kolfal

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems

Armann Ingolfsson

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems

Date Written: March 1, 2011

Abstract

Motivated by the dispatching of trucks to shovels in surface mines, we study optimal routing in a Markovian finite-source, multi-server queueing system with heterogeneous servers, each with a separate queue. We formulate the problem of routing customers to servers to maximize the system throughput as a Markov Decision Process. When the servers are homogeneous, we demonstrate that the Shortest Queue policy is optimal, and when the servers are heterogeneous, we partially characterize the optimal policy and present a near-optimal and simple-to-implement policy. We use the model to illustrate the substantial benefits of pooling, by comparing it to the permanent assignment of customers to servers.

Keywords: Markov processes, Queueing, Routing to parallel queues, Dispatching systems, Markov decision processes

Suggested Citation

Delasay, Mohammadmorteza and Kolfal, Bora and Ingolfsson, Armann, Maximizing Throughput in Finite-Source Parallel Queue Systems (March 1, 2011). European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 217, Issue 3, 16 March 2012, pp. 554–559, University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2013-196, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2275439

Mohammadmorteza Delasay (Contact Author)

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems ( email )

Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6
Canada

Bora Kolfal

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems ( email )

Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6
Canada

Armann Ingolfsson

University of Alberta - Department of Accounting, Operations & Information Systems ( email )

Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6
Canada

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