07/01/1996 09:00 AM
Computer Engineering
We consider systems with finite sources of requests, multiple servers, and an arbitrary number of preemptive priority classes. The service times and the source idle times are assumed to be exponentially distributed. We present an efficient approach based on marginal state description. The approach allows a recurrent analysis of priority levels where the usage of servers by higher priority requests is accounted for through server vanishing and reappearance rates. We first consider systems with fixed priorities. The method is then extended to cases where sources can issue requests at several priority levels.
