Signaled queueing

Abstract

Burstiness in queues where customers arrive independently leads to rush periods when wait times are long. We propose a simple signaling scheme to decrease wait times by distributing customer arrivals more uniformly. Agents receive one of several signals with suggestions on what time to join the queue. We quantify the efficiency gains, both analytically and empirically, with respect to a number of parameters of the proposed signaled queue, such as burstiness of arrivals, number of distinct signals, and propensity of customers to follow suggestions.