Workload analysis of a two-queue fluid polling model

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a fluid model of a two-queue polling system, deriving workload distributions and boundary value problems, and explores heavy-traffic limits and their implications for symmetric cases.

Contribution

It provides explicit solutions for workload distributions in a fluid polling model and examines heavy-traffic limits, including the case where limits commute.

Findings

Explicit Laplace-Stieltjes Transform of workloads derived

Heavy-traffic limit results show distribution convergence

Symmetric case solutions simplify boundary value problems

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze a two-queue random time-limited Markov modulated polling model. In the first part of the paper, we investigate the fluid version: Fluid arrives at the two queues as two independent flows with deterministic rate. There is a single server that serves both queues at constant speeds. The server spends an exponentially distributed amount of time in each queue. After the completion of such a visit time to one queue, the server instantly switches to the other queue, i.e., there is no switchover time. For this model, we first derive the Laplace-Stieltjes Transform (LST) of the stationary marginal fluid content/workload at each queue. Subsequently, we derive a functional equation for the LST of the two-dimensional workload distribution that leads to a Riemann-Hilbert boundary value problem (BVP). After taking a heavy-traffic limit, and restricting ourselves to the symmetric case, the boundary value problem simplifies and can be solved explicitly. In the second part of the paper, allowing for more general (L\'evy) input processes and server switching policies, we investigate the transient process-limit of the joint workload in heavy traffic. Again solving a BVP, we determine the stationary distribution of the limiting process. We show that, in the symmetric case, this distribution coincides with our earlier solution of the BVP, implying that in this case the two limits (stationarity and heavy traffic) commute.