Servicing Impatient Tasks That Have Uncertain Outcomes

Abstract

Many service systems confront tasks of uncertain identity, with limited time for service; that is, the uncertain tasks have deadlines, or are behaviorally impatient. Examples occur in medical care (especially emergencies), telephone help systems, and in military operations. This paper presents modifications of the M/G/1 system to illustrate the impact of the above features. Imperfect task classification is modeled, as is imperfect service and error afflicted assessment: tasks can be processed, and reprocessed, either correctly or incorrectly depending upon classification, performance, and performance assessment skills. The impact of exponential deadlines, either behavioral or server controlled, is represented using both a modification of the Takacs Benes integro differential equation, and a simple and accurate fixed point approximation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA370729

Entities

People

  • Donald P. Gaver Jr.
  • Patricia A. Jacobs

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Battle Damage Assessment
  • Classification
  • Command And Control
  • Computer Programs
  • Damage Assessment
  • Differential Equations
  • Emergencies
  • Equations
  • Information Operations
  • Information Warfare
  • Military Operations
  • Operations Research
  • Probability
  • Queueing Theory
  • Random Variables
  • Universities
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Educational Psychology
  • Mathematical Modeling and Probability Theory.