Multiclass Feedforward Networks

Abstract

In a feedforward network, jobs after service completion at a station can be routed only to a downstream station. Other than this restriction on routing, the network has more features than the generalized Jackson network studied in Chapter 7. In particular, jobs at each station come from different classes, with different service time distributions, and upon service completion will follow different routing sequences. In addition, job classes are partitioned into priority groups. Within the same group, jobs are served in the order of arrivals, i.e., following a first-in-first-out (FIFO) discipline. Among different groups, jobs are served under a preassigned preemptive priority discipline. Therefore, the model includes a network with a pure FIFO service discipline or a pure priority service discipline as a special case.