Structural properties of the optimal resource allocation policy for single-queue systems (original) (raw)

Optimal resource allocation for multiqueue systems with a shared server pool

Queueing Systems, 2011

We study optimal allocation of servers for a system with multiple service facilities and with a shared pool of servers. Each service facility poses a constraint on the maximum expected sojourn time of a job. A central decision maker can dynamically allocate servers to each facility, where adding more servers results in faster processing speeds but against higher utilization costs. The objective is to dynamically allocate the servers over the different facilities such that the sojourn-time constraints are met at minimal costs. This situation occurs frequently in practice, e.g., in Grid systems for real-time image processing (iris scans, fingerprints). We model this problem as a Markov decision process and derive structural properties of the relative value function. These properties, which are hard to derive for multi-dimensional systems, give a full characterization of the optimal policy.

Scheduling in a Single-Server Queue with State-Dependent Service Rates

Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences, 2019

We consider single-server scheduling to minimize holding costs where the capacity, or rate of service, depends on the number of jobs in the system, and job sizes become known upon arrival. In general, this is a hard problem, and counter-intuitive behavior can occur. For example, even with linear holding costs the optimal policy may be something other than SRPT or LRPT, it may idle, and it may depend on the arrival rate. We first establish an equivalence between our problem of deciding which jobs to serve when completed jobs immediately leave, and a problem in which we have the option to hold on to completed jobs and can choose when to release them, and in which we always serve jobs according to SRPT. We thus reduce the problem to determining the release times of completed jobs. For the clearing, or transient system, where all jobs are present at time 0, we give a complete characterization of the optimal policy and show that it is fully determined by the cost-to-capacity ratio. With arrivals, the problem is much more complicated, and we can obtain only partial results. We show that if the cost-to-capacity ratio is linear, then all nonidling policies yield the same average cost. We further characterize the optimal policy in some special cases. For example, we show that as long as capacity is increasing in the number of jobs, LRPT stochastically minimizes the mean busy period.

Stochastic scheduling of parallel queues with set-up costs

Queueing Systems, 1995

We consider the problem of allocating a single server to a system of queues with Poisson arrivals. Each queue represents a class of jobs and possesses a holding cost rate, general service distribution, and a set-up cost. The objective is to minimize the expected cost due to the waiting of jobs and the switching of the server. A set-up cost is required to effect an instantaneous switch from one queue to another. We partially characterize an optimal policy and provide a simple heuristic scheduling policy. The heuristic's performance is evaluated in the cases of two and three queues by comparison with a numerically obtained optimal policy. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our heuristic over a wide range of problem instances with four queues.

The optimal service time allocation of a versatile server to queue jobs and stochastically available non-queue jobs of different types

Computers & Operations Research, 2007

In this paper, we consider a service system in which the server can process N + 1 different types of jobs. Jobs of type 0 are generated randomly according to a Poisson stream. Jobs of types 1 to N are non-queue types which may or may not be available for completion by the server. To optimally allocate the server's time to these jobs, we formulate a finite state semi-Markov decision process model to this environment. With this model, the optimal stationary policies can be numerically determined via a policy-iteration algorithm. We also discuss the practical applications of this model to tele-service and tele-marketing operations.

Numerical Analysis of Optimal Control Policies for Queueing Systems with Heterogeneous Servers

INTRODUCTION The problem of optimal jobs assignment to heterogeneous servers arises in many applications. The problem of optimal jobs assignment for two heterogeneous servers with respect to minimization of long run average mean number jobs in the system was considered in [1], where it was shown that the policy, which minimizes the number of customers in the system, has a threshold property and consists in using the fastest server if necessary. For the multi-server system, these properties of an optimal policy were generalized in [2]. In the talk, an algorithm is proposed which gives the possibility to find optimal threshold levels for di#erent values of system parameters and investigate their behavior. Some numerical examples are also included. 2. THE PROBLEM Consider an M/M/K/N -K (K N<#) controllable queuing system with K heterogeneous exponential servers of intensities k (k = 1,K),N-K places in the bu#er, and a Poisson input of jobs with the intensity #. At the arrival ti

Optimal control of single-server queueing networks

ZOR - Methods and Models of Operations Research, 1993

A general single-server queueing network model is considered. It is well-known that an optimal policy is determined by the largest-index policy. There is an index for each given queue and one allocates the server to a queue with largest current index. Using discounted dynamic programming we give a new and short proof of this result and derive some characterizations and bounds of the indices. Moreover, it is shown that an approximate largest-index policy yields an approximately optimal policy. These results lead to efficient methods for computing the indices. In particular, we present a general largest-remaining-index method.

Optimal Control of Parallel Queues with Batch Service

Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences, 2002

We consider the problem of dynamic allocation of a single server with batch processing capability to a set of parallel queues+ Jobs from different classes cannot be processed together in the same batch+ The arrival processes are mutually independent Poisson flows with equal rates+ Batches have independent and identically distributed exponentially distributed service times, independent of the batch size and the arrival processes+ It is shown that for the case of infinite buffers, allocating the server to the longest queue, stochastically maximizes the aggregate throughput of the system+ For the case of equal-size finite buffers the same policy stochastically minimizes the loss of jobs due to buffer overflows+ Finally, for the case of unequalsize buffers, a threshold-type policy is identified through an extensive simulation study and shown to consistently outperform other conventional policies+ The good performance of the proposed threshold policy is confirmed in the heavy-traffic regime using a fluid model+

Optimal Control of a Two-Server Heterogeneous Queueing System with Breakdowns and Constant Retrials

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2016

Heterogeneous servers which can differ in service speed and reliability are becoming more popular in the modelling of modern communication systems. For a two-server queueing system with one nonreliable server and constant retrial discipline we formulate an optimal allocation problem for minimizing a long-run average cost per unit of time. Using a Markov decision process formulation we prove a number of monotone properties for the increments of the dynamic-programming value function. Such properties imply the optimality of a two-level threshold control policy. This policy prescribes the usage of a less productive server if the number of customers in the queue becomes higher than a predefined level which depends on the state of a non-reliable more powerful server. We provide also a heuristic solution for the optimal threshold levels in explicit form as a function of system parameters.

Constrained Load-Balancing Policies for Parallel Single-Server Queue Systems

Management Science, 2020

Flow-control policies that balance server loads are well known for improving performance of queueing systems with multiple nodes. However, although load balancing benefits the system overall, it may negatively impact some of the queueing nodes. For example, it may reduce throughput rates or engender unfairness with respect to some performance measures. For queueing systems with multiple single-server nodes, we propose a set of constrained load-balancing policies that ensures the expected arrival rate to each queueing node is not reduced, and we show that such policies provide multiple benefits for each queueing node: stochastically fewer customers and lower variance of the number of customers at each queueing node. These results imply performance improvement as measured by multiple general objective functions, including but not limited to the expected number of customers at a queueing node, probability of having a high number of customers, variance of the number of customers, and ex...