Structural results on a batch acceptance problem for capacitated queues

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structural properties of the optimal batch acceptance policy in a Markovian queueing system where different classes of customers arrive in batches and the buffer capacity is finite. We prove that the optimal policy can possess certain monotonicity properties under the assumptions of a single-server and constant batch sizes. Even though our proof cannot be extended to cases where either one of the assumptions is relaxed, we numerically observe that the optimal policy can still possess the same properties when only the single-server assumption is relaxed. Finally, we present counterexamples that show the non-monotone structure of the optimal policy when the batch sizes are not constant. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2007