Multiproduct Queueing Networks with Deterministic Routing: Decomposition Approach and the Notion of Interference

Queueing networks have been used to model the performance of a variety of complex systems, however, exact results exist for a limited class of networks. The methodology that has been used extensively to analyse networks of queues is the decomposition approach. In this paper, we consider open queueing networks with multiple product classes, deterministic routings and general arrival and service distributions. We examine the decomposition method for such systems and show that it provides estimates of key parameters with an accuracy that is not acceptable in many practical settings. Recognizing this weakness, we enriched the approach by modelling a phenomenon previously ignored. We consider interference among products and describe its effect on the variance of the departure streams. The recognition of this effect has significantly improved the performance of this methodology. We provide extensive experimental results based on the data of a manufacturer of semiconductor devices.