Operational analysis of multiclass queueing networks

Operational analysis is an alternative to the stochastic analysis of queueing networks. It consists in analyzing the behaviour of a queueing network during a finite period of time. Operational analysis has contributed to explain the robustness of productform queueing network models. However, previous results were only pertaining to single-class networks. In this paper, we present an operational analysis of queueing networks with several classes of customers. Operational variables which characterize the behaviour of the queueing network are defined. We show that under some assumptions pertaining to the behaviour of the system, the queueing network has a product-form solution. Furthermore, if an assumption called homogeneous behaviour is satisfied, then the product-form solution is similar to the one provided by the BCMP theorem.