The Erlang Loss formula is a widely used model for determining values of the long-run proportion of customers that are lost (ploss values) in multi-server loss systems with Poisson arrival processes. There is a need for models that are less restrictive. Here, the general two-server loss system is investigated with no restrictions on the form that the renewal type input process takes; i.e. the underlying model is based on the GI/G/2 model of queueing theory. The analysis is carried out in discrete time leading to a compact system of equations that can be solved numerically, or in special cases exactly, to obtain ploss values. Exact results are optained for some specific loss systems involving geometric distributions and, by taking appropriate limits, these results are extended to their continuous-time counterparts. A simple numerical procedure is developed to allow systems involving arbitrary continuous distributions to be approximated by the discrete-time model, leading to very accurate results for a set of test problems.
