Software Tool For Teaching Fundamentals of Queuing Theory

This paper presents a software tool that can be utilized to teach fundamentals of queuing theory. Arrival and service rates can be constant or from Exponential, Erlang, Hyper-exponential, or a general distribution. Number of servers, system capacity, and calling population size can be varied. The user can also select queue discipline and unit of time. The program computes average server utilization factor, average number of items in the queue, average number of items in the system, average time spent in the queue, average time spent in the system, probability of n items in the system, cost of service, and cost of waiting. The software tool can be utilized for in class exercises and for "what if" type analysis.