The departure process of discrete-time queueing systems with Markovian type inputs

This paper proposes a unified matrix-analytic approach to characterize the output processes of general discrete-time lossless/lossy queueing systems in which time is synchronized/slotted into fixed length intervals called slots. The arrival process can be continuousor discrete-time Markovian processes. It can be either renewal or non-renewal. The service of a customer commences at the beginning of a slot, consumes a random number of slots, and completes at the end of a later slot. The service times are independent and follow a common and general distribution. Systems with and without server vacations are both treated in this paper. These queueing systems have potential applications in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, packet radio networks, etc. Since the output process of a node in a queueing network becomes an input process to some node at the next stage, the results of this paper can be used to facilitate end-to-end performance analysis which has attracted more and more attention in the literature.