Dead-time losses in a buffered data recording system

Abstract

Expressions are derived for the average fraction of events that will be stored (i.e. not lost) when completely random events (i.e. with exponentially distributed interarrival times) are fed through a buffer with capacity n events into a data store with constant dead-time (service time). The data store can be synchronized with a clock of any cycle time. Transfer times are neglected, except between the buffer and the data store.