Equilibrium customers strategies in a single server M2/M/1 queue

Abstract

In the present paper we investigate the equilibrium customer behavior in a single server Markovian M2/M/1 queue with batch arrivals of two customers. We examine the various cases with respect to the level of information available to customers before they make this decision. More specifically, at their arrival epoch, the customers may or may not know the number of customers present in the system. In each of the two cases (observable case and unobservable case), we define the corresponding game, characterize customer equilibrium strategies, analyze the stationary behavior of the corresponding system. We also explore the effect of the information level on the equilibrium behavior and the social benefit via numerical comparisons. In other words, we analyze if the server is motivated to reveal information about the system state to the customers.