Speech compression in attendant services: Analysis of a queueing system with delay-dependent service times

We study a multiserver queueing system in which delays influence service times. The system arises in a proposed application of speech compression technology to telephone directory assistance. Customers who must wait for service record their service requests and these are compressed and played to a server as soon as one becomes available (even if the customer is still talking). The longer the delay, the larger the portion of the request that may be compressed, and hence the larger the service time reduction. We develop a model that predicts various performance measures of the system relative to the corresponding system without speech compression.