Fundamentals of Queueing Theory
Fourth Edition


Donald Gross
John F. Shortle
James M. Thompson
Carl M. Harris


(c) 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ.



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Table of Contents

  • Chapter 1: Introduction
  • Chapter 2: Simple Markovian Queueing Models
  • Chapter 3: Advanced Markovian Queueing Models
  • Chapter 4: Networks, Series, and Cyclic Queues
  • Chapter 5: General Arrival or Service Patterns
  • Chapter 6: General Models and Theoretical Topics
  • Chapter 7: Bounds and Approximations
  • Chapter 8: Numerical Techniques and Simulation
Detailed table of contents

Key Changes From 3rd Edition

  • Chapter 2 (Simple Markovian Queueing Models)
    • New section on choosing the number of servers (or the square-root law)
    • New sub-section on computational issues of the Erlang-B and Erlang-C formulas
    • Section on birth-death models moved from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3 (Advanced Markovian Queueing Models)
    • New section on retrial queues
    • Section on priority queues substantially rewritten; several other sections rewritten for clarity
  • Chapter 5 (General Arrival or Service Patterns)
    • Section on M/G/1 queue rewritten for clarity, including new alternate derivation of PK formula
    • New discussion of level-crossing methods
  • Chapter 7 (Bounds and Approximations)
    • The former Chapter 7 has been split into two chapters, 7 and 8.
    • New section on network approximations
  • Chapter 8 (Numerical Techniques and Simulation)
    • New section on numerical inversion of transforms
  • Many new problems throughout text
  • Many added figures and editing for clarity throughout text

Errata: First Printing

  • Index references are off by several pages in many cases. See corrected index (sorry!).
  • p 251. Equation at the bottom of the page is missing 'dy'
  • p. 254. Statement that “R(y) is called the staying function" should read "1 - R(y) is called the staying function" to be consistent with Brill (2008). However, the discussion is internally consistent.
  • p. 234 and 245. “Theorem 1.2 of Section 1.10” should be “Theorem 1.2 of Section 1.9.6.”
  • p. ix. According to the table of contents, the index is on p. 495. It is really on p. 493.

Errata: Third Printing (and earlier)

  • p. 146, two lines before equation 3.36. "W" and "L" are reversed in the Little's-law relations. They should read:
    • Correct: "Lq(i) = &lambdai Wq(i)" and "L(i) = &lambdai W(i)"
    • Incorrect: "Wq(i) = &lambdai Lq(i)" and "W(i) = &lambdai L(i)"
  • p. 127, last paragraph. The paragraph starts "Prior to showing an example, ...". This phrase should be omitted. The example was given previously (Example 3.4).