The stochastic behavior of a buffer with non-identical input lines

A system consisting of a buffer, N input lines leading to it and one line leading out is considered. Successive active and idle periods on the input lines constitute an alternating renewal process of a special kind. While in previous work the case of identical input lines was considered, the present paper gives a solution to the general case of non-identical input lines. This provides a tool for the analysis of arbitrarily complicated networks of buffers. The paper contains results regarding the traffic pattern on the output lineas well as the content of the buffer and the maximum content of the buffer during intervals of non-emptiness.