Approximate analysis of single-server tandem queues with finite buffers

In this paper, we study single-server tandem queues with general service times and finite buffers. Jobs are served according to the Blocking-After-Service protocol. To approximately determine the throughput and mean sojourn time, we decompose the tandem queue into single-buffer subsystems, the service times of which include starvation and blocking, and then we iteratively estimate the unknown parameters of the service times of each subsystem. The crucial feature of this approach is that in each subsystem successive service times are no longer assumed to be independent, but a successful attempt is made to include dependencies due to blocking by employing the concept of Markovian Arrival Processes. An extensive numerical study shows that this approach produces very accurate estimates for the throughput and mean sojourn time, outperforming existing methods, especially for longer tandem queues and for tandem queues with service times with a high variability. Keywords: Blocking – Decomposition – Finite buffer – Flow line – Markovian arrival process – Matrix-analytic methods