Steady-State Analysis of a Flexible Markovian Queue with Server Breakdowns

A flexible single-server queueing system is considered in this paper. The server adapts to the system size by using a strategy where the service provided can be either single or bulk depending on some threshold level c. If the number of customers in the system is less than c, then the server provides service to one customer at a time. If the number of customers in the system is greater than or equal to c, then the server provides service to a group of c customers. The service times are exponential and the service rates of single and bulk service are different. While providing service to either a single or a group of customers, the server may break down and goes through a repair phase. The breakdowns follow a Poisson distribution and the breakdown rates during single and bulk service are different. Also, repair times are exponential and repair rates during single and bulk service are different. The probability generating function and linear operator approaches are used to derive the system size steady-state probabilities.