The many-server queue with service time having rational Laplace transform of order 2 is considered. An expression for the asymptotic queue-length distribution is obtained. A relatively simple formula for the mean queue length is also found. A few numerical results on the mean queue length and on the probability of having to wait are given for the case of three servers. Some approximations for these quantities are also considered.

The general theory for the many server queue due to Pollaczek (1961) and generalized by the author (de Smit (1973)) is applied to the system with exponential service times. In this way many explicit results are obtained for the distributions of characteristic quantities, such as the actual waiting time, the virtual waiting time, the queue length, the number of busy servers, the busy period and the busy cycle. Most of these results are new, even for the special case of Poisson arrivals.

Pollaczek's theory for the many server queue is generalized and extended. Pollaczek (1961) found the distribution of the actual waiting times in the model G/G/s as a solution of a set of integral equations. We give a somewhat more general set of integral equations from which the joint distribution of the actual waiting time and some other random variables may be found. With this joint distribution we can obtain distributions of a number of characteristic quantities, such as the virtual waiting time, the queue length, the number of busy servers, the busy period and the busy cycle. For a wide class of many server queues the formal expressions may lead to explicit results.