Optimal control of a removable server in an M/G/1 queue with finite capacity (Q1100816)

We consider an M/G/1 system with finite capacity L in which the removable server applies a (v,N) policy; a classical cost structure is imposed and the total expected cost per unit time in the steady state is considered. For the M/M/1 situation, \textit{M. Hersh} and \textit{I. Brosh} [ibid. 5, 133- 141 (1980; Zbl 0437.60070)] analysed the policies with \(0\leq v<N\leq L\) and established that the best of them is characterized either by \(v=0\) or by \(N=L.\) By a different and quite easy way and for a general service time distribution, we prove that an optimal policy has the form \((v=0\), \(0\leq N\leq L+1)\), where the (0,0) and \((0,L+1)\) policies consist in never closing or never opening the station, respectively. Moreover, we describe a precise technique to analyse the policy space and to determine easily the optimal policy.