Strategic behavior and social optimization in Markovian vacation queues : The case of heterogeneous customers

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

102 Scopus Citations
View graph of relations

Author(s)

Detail(s)

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)278-286
Journal / PublicationEuropean Journal of Operational Research
Volume222
Issue number2
Online published17 May 2012
Publication statusPublished - 16 Oct 2012
Externally publishedYes

Abstract

We consider a single server queueing system in which service shuts down when no customers are present, and is resumed when the queue length reaches a given critical length. We assume customers are heterogeneous on delay sensitivity and analyze customers' strategic response to this mechanism and compare it to the overall optimal behavior. We provide algorithms to compute the equilibrium arrival rates and also derive the monotonicity of equilibrium and optimal arrival rates. We show that there may exist multiple equilibria in such a system and the optimal arrival rate may be larger or smaller than the decentralized equilibrium one. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Research Area(s)

  • Balking, Equilibrium analysis, Queueing, Strategic customers, Vacation queue