Equilibrium threshold strategies in observable queueing systems with setup/closedown times

Abstract

This paper considers two types of setup/closedown policies: interruptible and insusceptible setup/closedown policies. When all customers are served exhaustively in a system under the interruptible setup/closedown policy, the server shuts down (deactivates) by a closedown time. When the server reactivates since shutdown, he needs a setup time before providing service again. If a customer arrives during a closedown time, the service is immediately started without a setup time. However, in a system under the insusceptible setup/closedown policy, customers arriving in a closedown time can not be served until the following setup time finishes. For the systems with interruptible setup/closedown times, we assume both the fully and almost observable cases, then derive equilibrium threshold strategies for the customers and analyze the stationary behavior of the systems. On the other hand, for the systems with insusceptible setup/closedown times, we only consider the fully observable case. We also illustrate the equilibrium thresholds and the social benefits for systems via numerical experiments. As far as we know, there is no work concerning equilibrium behavior of customers in queueing systems with setup/closedown times.