CEE 320

Fall 2008

Queuing

CEE 320
Anne Goodchild

Outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Fundamentals
Poisson Distribution
Notation
Applications
Analysis
a. Graphical
b. Numerical

CEE 320
Fall 2008

6. Example

Fundamentals of Queuing Theory

Microscopic traffic flow
Different analysis than theory of traffic flow
Intervals between vehicles is important
Rate of arrivals is important

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Arrivals
Departures
Service rate

Activated
Upstream of bottleneck/server

Arrivals

Departures

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Fall 2008

Server/bottleneck

Direction of flow

Downstream

Not Activated

Arrivals

Departures

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Fall 2008

server

Flow Analysis
Bottleneck active

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Service rate is capacity

Downstream flow is determined by bottleneck
service rate
Arrival rate > departure rate
Queue present

Flow Analysis
Bottle neck not active

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Arrival rate < departure rate

No queue present
Service rate = arrival rate
Downstream flow equals upstream flow

CEE 320
Fall 2008

http://trafficlab.ce.gatech.edu/freewayapp/
RoadApplet.html

Fundamentals of Queuing Theory

Arrivals
Arrival rate (veh/sec)
Uniform
Poisson

Time between arrivals (sec)

Constant
Negative exponential

Service
Service rate
Service times

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Constant
Negative exponential

Queue Discipline
First In First Out (FIFO)
prevalent in traffic engineering

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Last In First Out (LIFO)

Queue Analysis Graphical

D/D/1 Queue

Departure
Rate
Arrival
Rate

Vehicles

Delay of nth arriving vehicle

Maximum queue

Maximum delay
Total vehicle delay

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Queue at time, t1

t1

Time

Where is capacity?

Poisson Distribution
Good for modeling random events
Count distribution
Uses discrete values
Different than a continuous distribution

t
P n

e
n!

P(n) = probability of exactly n vehicles arriving over time t

n = number of vehicles arriving over time t

CEE 320
Fall 2008

= average arrival rate

t = duration of time over which vehicles are counted

Poisson Ideas
Probability of exactly 4 vehicles arriving
P(n=4)

Probability of less than 4 vehicles arriving

P(n<4) = P(0) + P(1) + P(2) + P(3)

Probability of 4 or more vehicles arriving

P(n4) = 1 P(n<4) = 1 - P(0) + P(1) + P(2) + P(3)

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Amount of time between arrival of successive vehicles

t
P 0 P h t

e
0!

e t e qt 3600

Example Graph
0.25

Probability of Occurance

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

CEE 320
Fall 2008

0.00
0

10

11

12

13

Arrivals in 15 minutes

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Example Graph
0.25

Mean = 0.2 vehicles/minute

Probability of Occurance

0.20

Mean = 0.5 vehicles/minute

0.15

0.10

0.05

CEE 320
Fall 2008

0.00
0

10

11

12

13

Arrivals in 15 minutes

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Example: Arrival Intervals

Probability of Excedance

1.0
0.9

Mean = 0.2 vehicles/minute

0.8

Mean = 0.5 vehicles/minute

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

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Fall 2008

0.0
0

10

12

14

Time Between Arrivals (minutes)

16

18

20

Queue Notation
Number of
service channels

Arrival rate nature

X /Y / N
Departure rate nature

Popular notations:

CEE 320
Fall 2008

D/D/1, M/D/1, M/M/1, M/M/N

D = deterministic
M = some distribution

Queuing Theory Applications

D/D/1
Deterministic arrival rate and service times
Not typically observed in real applications but
reasonable for approximations

M/D/1
General arrival rate, but service times
deterministic
Relevant for many applications

M/M/1 or M/M/N
CEE 320
Fall 2008

General case for 1 or many servers

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Queue times depend on

variability

Steady state assumption

Queue Analysis Numerical

M/D/1
Average length of queue

2
Q
21

Average time waiting in queue w

2 1

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Average time spent in system

1 2

t
2 1

= arrival rate = departure rate =traffic intensity

1.0

Queue Analysis Numerical

M/M/1
Average length of queue

2
Q
1

Average time waiting in queue w

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Average time spent in system

= arrival rate = departure rate =traffic intensity

1.0

Queue Analysis Numerical

M/M/N
Average length of queue

N 1.0

P0 N 1
1
Q

2
N ! N 1 N

Q 1

Average time waiting in queue w

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Average time spent in system

= arrival rate = departure rate =traffic intensity

M/M/N More Stuf

Probability of having no vehicles
1
P0 N 1 nc

N ! 1 N
nc 0 nc !

N 1.0

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Probability of having n vehicles

n
n

P0
P0
Pn n N
for n N
Pn
for n N
N N!
n!
Probability of being in a queue
P0 N 1
Pn N
N ! N 1 N
= arrival rate = departure rate =traffic intensity

Poisson Distribution Example

Vehicle arrivals at the Olympic National Park main gate are assumed
Poisson distributed with an average arrival rate of 1 vehicle every 5
minutes. What is the probability of the following:
1. Exactly 2 vehicles arrive in a 15 minute interval?
2. Less than 2 vehicles arrive in a 15 minute interval?
3. More than 2 vehicles arrive in a 15 minute interval?

0.20 veh min t

P n

0.20 veh min t

CEE 320
Fall 2008

n!

From HCM 2000

Example Calculations
Exactly 2:
Less than 2:

0.20 15 e 0.20 15
P 2

2!

0.224 22.4%

P n 2 P 0 P1 0.1992
P(0)=e-.2*15=0.0498, P(1)=0.1494

CEE 320
Fall 2008

More than 2:

P n 2 1 P 0 P1 P 2 0.5768

Example 1
You are entering Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmunson Pavilion to
watch a basketball game. There is only one ticket line to purchase
tickets. Each ticket purchase takes an average of 18 seconds. The
average arrival rate is 3 persons/minute.

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Find the average length of queue and average waiting time in queue
assuming M/M/1 queuing.

Example 1
Departure rate: = 18 seconds/person or 3.33
persons/minute
Arrival rate: = 3 persons/minute
= 3/3.33 = 0.90
Q-bar = 0.902/(1-0.90) = 8.1 people
W-bar = 3/3.33(3.33-3) = 2.73 minutes

CEE 320
Fall 2008

T-bar = 1/(3.33 3) = 3.03 minutes

Example 2
You are now in line to get into the Arena. There are 3 operating
turnstiles with one ticket-taker each. On average it takes 3 seconds
for a ticket-taker to process your ticket and allow entry. The average
arrival rate is 40 persons/minute.

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Find the average length of queue, average waiting time in queue

assuming M/M/N queuing.

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Example 2

N=3
Departure rate: = 3 seconds/person or 20 persons/minute
Arrival rate: = 40 persons/minute
= 40/20 = 2.0
/N = 2.0/3 = 0.667 < 1 so we can use the other equations

P0 = 1/(20/0! + 21/1! + 22/2! + 23/3!(1-2/3)) = 0.1111

Q-bar = (0.1111)(24)/(3!*3)*(1/(1 2/3)2) = 0.88 people
T-bar = (2 + 0.88)/40 = 0.072 minutes = 4.32 seconds
W-bar = 0.072 1/20 = 0.022 minutes = 1.32 seconds

Example 3
You are now inside the Arena. They are passing out Harry the Husky
doggy bags as a free giveaway. There is only one person passing
these out and a line has formed behind her. It takes her exactly 6
seconds to hand out a doggy bag and the arrival rate averages
9 people/minute.

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Find the average length of queue, average waiting time in queue, and
average time spent in the system assuming M/D/1 queuing.

Example 3
N=1
Departure rate: = 6 seconds/person or 10
persons/minute
Arrival rate: = 9 persons/minute
= 9/10 = 0.9

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Q-bar = (0.9)2/(2(1 0.9)) = 4.05 people

W-bar = 0.9/(2(10)(1 0.9)) = 0.45 minutes = 27
seconds
T-bar = (2 0.9)/((2(10)(1 0.9) = 0.55 minutes = 33
seconds

CEE 320
Fall 2008

Primary References

Mannering, F.L.; Kilareski, W.P. and Washburn, S.S. (2003). Principles of

Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysis, Third Edition (Draft). Chapter
5

Transportation Research Board. (2000). Highway Capacity Manual

2000. National Research Council, Washington, D.C.