A decomposition approximation method for multiclass BCMP queueing networks with multiple-server stations

Closed multiclass separable queueing networks can in principle be analyzed using exact computational algorithms. This, however, may not be feasible in the case of large networks. As a result, much work has been devoted to developing approximation techniques, most of which is based on heuristic extensions of the mean value analysis (MVA) algorithm. In this paper, we propose an alternative approximation method to analyze large separable networks. This method is based on an approximation method for non-separable networks recently proposed by Baynat and Dallery. We show how this method can be efficiently used to analyze large separable networks. It is especially of interest when dealing with networks having multiple-server stations. Numerical results show that this method has good accuracy.