A new approach to analysis of polling systems (Q702056)

The paper proposes a new method for computing the mean waiting times in polling systems with \(J\) stations. It involves the buffer occupancy variables, but the authors believe that their method does not fall into the buffer occupancy method. Whereas the buffer occupancy method requires the first and the second moments of these variables, their method only requires first moments. Further they are not steady state values, but are conditioned on the system states at customer arrival epochs. The paper relates these expectations to the performance measures \(W_i \), \(H_i \) and \(F_i \), which are the expected waiting times for individual customers conditioned on the system state. Then it derives \(J(J + 1)\) linear equations for the average number of customers.