Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 July 2016
The present theory of finite reservoirs is not rich in general theorems even when of the simple Moran type, with unit draft and stationary discrete independent-sequence inflows. For the corresponding systems with unbounded capacity however there are two classes of results which have been known for some time. One of these classes is concerned with the time-dependent solution, where the theory provides a functional equation for the generating function of the time to first emptiness (Kendall (1957)), and the other with the asymptotic stationary distribution of reservoir contents, for which an explicit formula for the generating function is available (Moran (1959)).