Optimal dynamic operating policies for cyclic-type queues

Cyclic Queues have important applications to polling systems in computer and telecommunications networks, flexible multiproduct manufacturing systems, traffic control and data link protocols, etc. The basic model is a system composed of K channels (queues) and a single cyclically roving server. Research has previously focused on evaluating and computing performance measures (notably, waiting times) of fixed template routing schemes under two main service disciplines, the exhaustive and gated regimes. In this dissertation, exact probabalistic results are derived that allow control strategies and optimal policies to be considered for the first time. By concentrating on a new objective function, we are able to derive elegant rules of index form amenable to direct implementation to dynamically control the system at every suitable decision epoch. The rules utilize current system information and are of an adaptive nature. An economic interpretation of the policies is given in terms of a new stochastic scheduling model that is applied to job shop scheduling and inventory issuing policies.