Erlang arrivals joining the shorter queue (Q2375751)

This paper presents an analysis of a system in which, upon arrival, customers join the shortest of two single-server queues. The customers' service times are independent and exponentially distributed with a mean of one, irrespective of which queue they joined. The arrivals form a reneval process with Erlang interarrival times with the mean \(k/\lambda\) so that each interarrival time consists of \(k\) independent exponential phases with the mean \(1/\lambda\) respectively. Under these Markovian assumptions, this system rises to a Markov chain on a multi-layered quarter plane. In other words, the system can be described as a three-dimensional Markovian chain, whose state space consists of a \(k\)-layered quarter plane. When \(\rho = \lambda/2k<1\), this Markov chain is ergodic and equilibrium distribution exists. In this paper, an explicit expression for the equilibrium distribution in terms of an infinity series of geometric terms is derived.