Throughput limits from the asymptotic profile of cyclic networks with state-dependent service rates (Q931401)

This paper is concerned with networks where at each node there is a single exponential server with a service rate which is a non-decreasing function of the queue length. The asymptotic profile of a sequence of networks consists of the set of persistent service rates, the limiting customer-to-node ratio, and the limiting service-rate measure. For a sequence of cyclic networks whose asymptotic profile exists, upper and lower bounds for the limit points of the sequence of throughputs as functions of the limiting customer-to-node ratio are computed. Then the authors find conditions under which the limiting throughput exists and is expressible in terms of the asymptotic profile. Under these conditions, the limiting queue-length distributions for persistent service rates are determined. In the absence of these conditions, the limiting throughput need not exist, even for increasing sequences of cyclic networks.