A single server is fed by a renewal stream of individual customers. These are of type k with probability πk, k = 1, …, N, and are all served individually. Upon completion of a service the server proceeds immediately with a customer of the lowest type (= highest priority) present, if any. Service times for type k are drawn from a general distribution function Bk(t) concentrated on (0, ∞).

We lay the foundations for a broad analysis of the model.

A single server faces a renewal stream of low and another one of high priority customers, one of them being a Poisson stream. For the preemptive resume and head-of-the line disciplines the transient behaviour of the queue is studied. Various limiting distributions are also obtained.

Consider the following queuing system: A sequence of customers arrive at a service unit in a recurrent stream. A customer is of priority k with probability πk, k = 1, …, n. A class i customer preempts service of class k, k > i. Interrupted service is resumed without loss or gain in service time. Service is FIFO within classes. Service times for class k are drawn from a general distribution function Bk(t).

Using the method of phases and a resolution technique from the theory of Markov processes we obtain Laplace transforms of various distributions.