Queuing Theory

This text is clearly written to be generally accessible and readable; you will probably find this treatment most favorable.

Chapter 6 in particular deals with basics of queuing theory. It walks the reader through material slowly with many examples. A reader might find it spends too much time on the details of the mathematics, but it does work through the derivations I omit in the lecture.

I find the treatment to be a little too brief, but it gets some fundamental ideas across.

Laurent Vanbever recommended this book to someone looking for queuing theory textbooks, adding "if you're looking for queuing theory material, then the book on network calculus from Le Boudec and Thiran is probably relevant, but not for the faint-hearted."

This one is perhaps my favorite, though it is primarily a mathematical treatment. It touches on networks (not just queues), and mentions other types of queues besides the basic ones. Some probability background is required, or a reader should spend some time in the appendix to familiarize himself. It may be a more difficult one to study from.

Chapter 8 is of greatest interest here. Dr. Ross writes well in this text, and it’s written at an undergraduate level. Moreover, the probability fundamentals are contained in the rest of the book. He treats basic networks for those who wish to “read ahead”.

What I like about this chapter is that it deals with server breakdown as well at an easy-to-understand level. There are also a plethora of exercises (theoretical ones) to practice.

This is the only place thus far I have seen a textbook treatment of discrete queues (most other is in the academic literature). The best thing about this work is the bibliography that gives quite a few real applications of many of the ideas we’ll see throughout the lectures. Unfortunately, it’s one of the worst-written textbooks I’ve ever read (and I have, cover to cover).