Journal of the Operations Research Society of China ›› 2023, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (3): 489-504.doi: 10.1007/s40305-021-00382-5

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Approximations for a Queueing Game Model with Join-the-Shortest-Queue Strategy

Qi-Hui Bu1, Li-Wei Liu2, Jia-Shan Tang1, Yi-Qiang Q. Zhao3   

  1. 1. School of Science, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210023, Jiangsu, China;
    2. School of Science, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, Jiangsu, China;
    3. School of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada
  • Received:2020-05-17 Revised:2021-11-14 Online:2023-09-30 Published:2023-09-07
  • Contact: Qi-Hui Bu, Jia-Shan Tang, Li-Wei Liu, Yi-Qiang Q. Zhao E-mail:buqihui@njupt.edu.cn;tangjs@njupt.edu.cn;lwliu@njust.edu.cn;zhao@math.carleton.ca
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.61773014), Scientific Research Fund of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (No.NY220160) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Abstract: This paper investigates a partially observable queueing system with N nodes in which each node has a dedicated arrival stream. There is an extra arrival stream to balance the load of the system by routing its customers to the shortest queue. In addition, a reward-cost structure is considered to analyse customers' strategic behaviours. The equilibrium and socially optimal strategies are derived for the partially observable mean field limit model. Then, we show that the strategies obtained from the mean field model are good approximations to the model with finite N nodes. Finally, numerical experiments are provided to compare the equilibrium and socially optimal behaviours, including joining probabilities and social benefits for different system parameters.

Key words: Game theory, Queueing systems, Mean field limit, Markov process

CLC Number: