Exponential upper bounds via martingales for multiplexers with Markovian arrivals

Abstract

We obtain explicit upper bounds in closed form for the queue length in a slotted time FCFS queue in which the service requirement is a sum of independent Markov processes on the state space {0, 1}, with integral service rate. The bound is of the form [queue length for any where c < 1 and y > 1 are given explicitly in terms of the parameters of the model. The model can be viewed as an approximation for the burst-level component of the queue in an ATM multiplexer. We obtain heavy traffic bounds for the mean queue length and show that for typical parameters this far exceeds the mean queue length for independent arrivals at the same load. We compare our results on the mean queue length with an analytic expression for the case of unit service rate, and compare our results on the full distribution with computer simulations.