Queues with time-dependent arrival rates. II — The maximum queue and the return to equilibrium
During a rush hour, the arrival rateλ(t) of customers to a service facility is assumed to increase to a maximum value exceeding the service rateμ, and then decrease again. In Part I it was shown that, afterλ(t) has passedμ, the expected queueE{X(t)} exceeds that given by the deterministic theory by a fixed amount, (0.95)L, which is proportional to the (–1/3) power ofa(t) =dλ(t)/dtevaluated at timet= 0 whenλ(t) =μ.The maximum ofE{X(t)}, therefore, occurs whenλ(t) again is equal toμat timet1as predicted by deterministic queueing theory, but is larger than given by the deterministic theory by this same constant (0.95)L(providedt1is sufficiently large). It is shown here that the maximum queue, suptX(t) is, approximately normally distributed with a mean (0.95) (L+L1) larger than predicted by deterministic theory whereL, is proportional to the (–1/3) power ofa(t1). We also investigate the distribution ofX(t) at the end of the rush hour when the queue distribution returns to equilibrium. During the transition, the queue distribution is approximately a mixture of a truncated normal and the equilibrium distributions. These results are applied to a case whereλ(t) is quadratic int.