Analysis and simulation of queuing systems with setup classes

This paper is concerned with an investigation of the queueing process that aries when one imposes nonzero setup times on a single server system with different classes of jobs. The main departure from existing works is the relaxation of usual assumptions about the number of classes (usually two) and the average number of jobs served during the busy period of the server on a given class (usually one). A mixed approach is followed, based on analysis and Monte-Carlo simulation. The objective is to compare setup disciplines on the basis of the mean response time of the system and of the utilization factor of the server.