We are all familiar with waiting in lines (or queues) – at the grocery store, at the airport, in traffic, on the telephone, and so forth. A fundamental issue for any service-provider is whether or not to spend more money on resources in order to reduce waiting times for the customers. Queueing theory is the analytical study of these stochastic processes, and it provides the decision-maker a way to allocate resources based on rigorous, quantitative analysis. This course provides a survey of queueing models. The focus is both on mathematical analyses of such models as well as practical issues using such models to represent real problems. This course assumes prior knowledge of calculus-based probability and continuous-time Markov chains. The pre-requisite is OR 542 (Stochastic Models), or STAT 544 (Applied Probability), or permission of the instructor.

Class Hours: Spring 2009, Tu 7:20 - 10:00 pm, Enterprise Hall, room 175

Prerequisite: OR 542 (Stochastic Models), or STAT 544 (Applied Probability), or permission of instructor

Instructor: John Shortle, , 703-993-3571, Engineering Building, rm 2210
Office Hours (Spring 2009): Tu 6:15-7:15 pm, Th 2-3 pm.

Textbook: Gross, Shortle, Thompson, Harris, Fundamentals of Queueing Theory, Fourth Edition.

General Course Information

• Course Overview