Article ID: | iaor19931555 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 17 |
Issue: | 4 |
Start Page Number: | 901 |
End Page Number: | 909 |
Publication Date: | Nov 1992 |
Journal: | Mathematics of Operations Research |
Authors: | Sennott Linn I., Ritt Robert K. |
Keywords: | markov processes, queues: theory |
The result of Sennott on the existence of optimal stationary policies in countable state Markov decision chains with finite action sets is generalized to arbitrary state space Markov decision chains. The assumption of finite action sets occurring in a global countable action space allows a particularly simple theoretical structure for the general state space Markov decision chain. Two examples illustrate the results. Example 1 is a system of parallel qeues with stochastic work requirements, a movable server with controllable service rate, and a reject option. Example 2 is a system of parallel queues with stochastic controllable inputs, a movable server with fixed service rates, and a reject option.