A Survey on Queueing Systems with Mathematical Models and Applications

Read this paper on waiting line analysis and queues. It provides a good survey of the theory and uses of this type of analysis. Pay particular attention to sections 1 through 3. How might these models be used to balance firm costs with different levels of customer satisfaction?

3. Components of Queueing System

3.5. The Service Capacity

There may be a single server or group of servers to help arrivals having limitations with respect to the number of customers. For example, in a data communication network, only finitely many cells can be buffered in a switch. The determination of good buffer size is an important issue in the design of these networks.