Queueing models for performance analysis: Selection of single station models

Queueing networks are increasingly being used in facility planning to evaluate alternatives. The foundation of such models is an accurate approximation of the single-station queue. Several alternative models have been proposed for the single-station queue with finite buffers and general arrival and service processes. This paper compares five such approximations by examining how the values of the queue parameters impact the performance estimates of each approximation method relative to a simulation. Selected approximation methods are shown to be more accurate and less biased than alternative approximations.