A one-dimensional diffusion model for overloaded queues with customer abandonment

Abstract

We use an Ornstein--Uhlenbeck (OU) process to approximate the queue length process in a $GI/GI/n+M$ queue. This one-dimensional diffusion model is able to produce accurate performance estimates in two overloaded regimes: In the first regime, the number of servers is large and the mean patience time is comparable to or longer than the mean service time; in the second regime, the number of servers can be arbitrary but the mean patience time is much longer than the mean service time. Using the diffusion model, we obtain Gaussian approximations for the steady-state queue length and the steady-state virtual waiting time. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the approximate distributions are satisfactory for queues in these two regimes. To mathematically justify the diffusion model, we formulate the two overloaded regimes into an asymptotic framework by considering a sequence of queues. The mean patience time goes to infinity in both asymptotic regimes, whereas the number of servers approaches infinity in the first regime but does not change in the second. The OU process is proved to be the diffusion limit for the queue length processes in both regimes. A crucial tool for proving the diffusion limit is a functional central limit theorem for the superposition of time-scaled renewal processes. We prove that the superposition of $n$ independent, identically distributed stationary renewal processes, after being centered and scaled in both space and time, converges in distribution to a Brownian motion as $n$ goes to infinity.