Apostolos Burnetas. Equilibrium Customer Behavior in Queues with Service Options

Abstract. We consider a queueing system where customers purchase options at periodic time intervals.
An option can be exercised to gain access to a dedicated service station, when the queue length in the regular queue is high.
The problem of finding the equilibrium exercise policy is formulated as a multi-period game with infinite players.
An iterative algorithm is proposed for identifying symmetric equilibrium policies in this game, and generalizations of this idea are discussed.