We study the expected time to ruin in a risk process in which dividends are paid when the surplus is above the barrier. We consider the case in which the dividend rate is smaller than the premium rate. We obtain results for the classical compound Poisson risk process with phase-type claim size. When the ruin probability is 1, we derive the expected time to ruin and the expected dividends paid. When the ruin probability is less than 1, these quantities are derived conditioning on the event that ruin occurs.

It is shown that the time to ruin and the recovery time in a risk process have the same distribution as the busy period in a certain queueing system. Similarly, the deficit at the time of ruin is distributed as the idle period in a single-server queueing system. These duality results are exploited to derive upper bounds for the expected time to ruin and the expected recovery time as defined by Egídio dos Reis (2000). When the claim size is generally distributed, Lorden's inequality is applied to derive the bounds. When the claim-size distribution is of phase type, tighter upper bounds are derived.

The average delay for the GI/G/1 queue is often approximated as a function of the first two moments of interarrival and service times. For highly irregular arrivals, however, it varies widely among queues with the same first two moments, even in moderately heavy traffic. Empirically, it decreases as the interarrival time third moment increases. For GI/M/1 queues, a heavy-traffic expression for the average delay with this property has been previously obtained. The method, however, sheds little light on why the third moment arises. We analyze the equilibrium idle-period distribution in heavy traffic using real-variable methods. For GI/M/1 queues, we derive the above heavy-traffic result and also obtain conditions under which it is either an upper or lower bound. Our approach provides an intuitive explanation for the result and also strongly suggests that similar results should hold for general service. This is supported by empirical evidence. For any given service distribution, it has been conjectured that the expected delay under pure-batch arrivals, where interarrival times are scaled Bernoulli random variables, is an upper bound on the average delay over all interarrival distributions with the same first two moments. We investigate this conjecture and show, among other things, that pure-batch arrivals have the smallest third moment. We obtain conditions under which this conjecture is true and present a counterexample where it fails. Arrivals that arise as overflows from other queues can be highly irregular. We show that interoverflow distributions in a certain class have decreasing failure rate.

This paper finds the first and second moments of the number of arrivals in a stable M/M/k queue during an idle period, i.e. in a period when at least one server is idle. These and similar results are used along with renewal theory asymptotics to find the first and second moments of the proportion of arrivals occurring while there are at least ξ customers waiting for service. The asymptotics of the second moment for large ξ are established.

Busy period problems in infinite server queues are studied systematically, starting from the batch service time. General relations are given for the lengths of the busy cycle, busy period and idle period, and for the number of customers served in a busy period. These relations show that the idle period is the most difficult while the busy cycle is the simplest of the four random variables. Renewal arguments are used to derive explicit results for both general and special cases.

This paper continues the study (initiated in [2]) of the GI/G/K system in heavy traffic. We give a Berry–Esseen type theorem for the rate of convergence of the queue length.

This paper provides Berry–Esseen rate of limit theorem concerning the number of customers in a GI/G/K queueing system observed at arrival epochs for traffic intensity ρ > 1. The main method employed involves establishing several equalities about waiting time and queue length.

In this paper the probability distribution of the discrete busy period of the 〈M, 1, GI/∞, 1〉 queue and some of its stability properties are given.

The asymptotic behaviour of the Ek/G/1 queue with finite waiting room is studied. Using a combination of the supplementary variable and phase techniques, queue length and waiting time distributions are obtained. Also the idle period distribution and mean length of the idle and busy periods are found.

This paper obtains the probability and the expectation of the length of the busy and idle periods in a discrete-time service system by means of two-component Markov chains and their first passage times. The M/G/1 model is discussed as a special case.

The object of this paper is to study the actual waiting time of a customer in a GI/G/1 queue. This is an important criterion from the viewpoint of both the customers and the efficient functioning of the counter. Suitable point processes in the product space of load and time parameters for any general inter-arrival and service time distributions are defined and integral equations governing the correlation functions are set up. Solutions of these equations are obtained and with the help of these, explicit expressions for the first two moments of the number of customers who have waited for a time longer than w in a given time interval (0, T) are calculated.