To Queue or Not to Queue, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2003 Equilibrium Behavior in Queueing Systems International Series in Operations Research & Management Science Series, Vol. 59

The literature on equilibrium behavior of customers and servers in queuing systems is rich. However, there is no comprehensive survey of this field. Moreover, what has been published lacks continuity and leaves many issues uncovered. One of the main goals of this book is to review the existing literature under one cover. Other goals are to edit the known results in a unified manner, classify them and identify where and how they relate to each other, and fill in some gaps with new results. In some areas we explicitly mention open problems. We hope that this survey will motivate further research and enable researchers to identify important open problems. The models described in this book have numerous applications. Many examples can be found in the cited papers, but we have chosen not to include applications in the book. Many of the ideas described in this book are special cases of general principles in Economics and Game Theory. We often cite references that contain more general treatment of a subject, but we do not go into the details. we have highlighted the results For each topic covered in the book, that, in our opinion, are the most important. We also present a brief discussion of related results. The content of each chapter is briefly de­ scribed below. Chapter 1 is an introduction. It contains basic definitions, models and solution concepts which will be used frequently throughout the book.

1. Introduction.- 1.1 Basic concepts.- 1.2 Threshold strategies.- 1.3 Costs and objectives.- 1.4 Queueing theory preliminaries.- 1.5 A shuttle example.- 1.6 Non-stochastic models.- 2. Observable Queues.- 2.1 Naor’s model.- 2.2 The LCFS-PR model.- 2.3 Social optimization.- 2.4 Profit maximization.- 2.5 Heterogeneous customers.- 2.6 Non-FCFS queues without reneging.- 2.7 Discounting.- 2.8 State dependent pricing.- 2.9 Waiting for the right server.- 2.10 Non-exponential service requirements.- 2.11 Related literature.- 3. Unobservable Queues.- 3.1 Identical customers.- 3.2 Observable vs. unobservable queues.- 3.3 Heterogeneous service values.- 3.4 Heterogeneous service values and time costs.- 3.5 Customers know their demand.- 3.6 Finite buffer.- 3.7 Multi-server models.- 3.8 Queueing networks.- 3.9 Related literature.- 4. Priorities.- 4.1 Observable queues.- 4.2 Unobservable queues.- 4.3 Discriminatory processor sharing.- 4.4 Incentive compatible prices.- 4.5 Bribes and auctions.- 4.6 Class decision.- 4.7 Related literature.- 5. Reneging and Jockeying.- 5.1 Reneging in observable queues.- 5.2 Reneging in unobservable queues.- 5.3 Jockeying.- 5.4 Related literature.- 6. Schedules and Retrials.- 6.1 Waiting time auctions.- 6.2 ?/M/1.- 6.3 Arrivals to scheduled batch service.- 6.4 Retrials.- 6.5 Related literature.- 7. Competition among Servers.- 7.1 Unobservable queues with heterogeneous time values.- 7.2 Unobservable queues with heterogeneous values of service.- 7.3 Observable queues.- 7.4 Price and priority competition.- 7.5 Search among competing servers.- 7.6 Information based competition.- 7.7 Related literature.- 8. Service Rate Decisions.- 8.1 Heterogeneous service values.- 8.2 Service rate at a fixed price.- 8.3 Bribes and auctions.- 8.4 Asymmetric information.- 8.5Observable vs. unobservable queues.- 8.6 Co-production.- 8.7 Competition among servers.- 8.8 Capacity expansion.- 8.9 Related literature.

From the reviews:"The book enriches the literature on equilibrium of customers and servers in queuing systems, and it reviews the existing literature. On the other hand, it edits the known results in a unified way, and mentions some open problems. ... The book presents a fresh introduction to queuing theory. ... The nice book is welcome in the realm of queuing world." (Anatolij Dvurecenskij, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1064 (15), 2005)