Analysis of Priority Systems with a Mixed Service Discipline

We investigate a multiclass priority system with a mixed service discipline, and propose a new approach to the analysis of performance measures (mean waiting times) of the system. Customers are preferentially served in the order of priority. The service discipline at each station is either gated or exhaustive discipline. We formulate mean waiting times as functions on the state of the system. We first consider the system at an arbitrary system state to obtain explicit formulae for the mean waiting times, and then derive their steady state values by using the property of Poisson arrivals to see time averages and the generalized Little's formula.