Equilibrium strategies in a constant retrial queue with setup time and the N-policy

Abstract

In this article, customers’ strategic behavior and social optimation in a constant retrial queue with setup time and the N-policy are investigated. Customers who find the server isn’t idle either leave forever or enter an orbit. After a service, the server will seek a customer from the orbit at a constant rate. The server is closed whenever the system becomes empty, and is activated when the number of waitlisted customers reaches a threshold. We obtain the equilibrium arrival rates in different states. There exist both Follow-the-Crowd (FTC) and Avoid-the-Crowd (ATC) behaviors. Through the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, we numerically obtain the optimal solution of the social welfare maximization problem. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the sensitivity of system performance measures.