Transient loss performance of a class of finite buffer queueing systems

Abstract

Performance-oriented studies typically rely on the assumption that the stochastic process modeling the phenomenon of interest is already in steady state. This assumption is, however, not valid if the life cycle of the phenomenon under study is not large enough, since usually a stochastic process cannot reach steady state unless time evolves towards infinity. Therefore, it is important to address performance issues in transient state.Previous work in transient analysis of queueing systems usually focuses on Markov models. This paper, in contrast, presents an analysis of transient loss performance for a class of finite buffer queueing systems that are not necessarily Markovian. We obtain closed-form transient loss performance measures. Based on the loss measures, we compare transient loss performance against steady-state loss performance and examine how different assumptions on the arrival process will affect transient loss behavior of the queueing system. We also discuss how to guarantee transient loss performance. The analysis is illustrated with numerical results.