Control of arrivals to a stochastic input–output system

The problem of controlling input to a stochastic input-output system by accepting or rejecting arriving customers is analyzed as a semi-Markov decision process. Included as special cases are a GI / G /1 model and models with compound input and/or output processes, as well as several previously studied queueing-control models. We establish monotonicity of socially and individually optimal acceptance policies and the more restrictive nature of the former, with random rewards for acceptance and both customer-oriented and system-oriented non-linear waiting costs. Distinctive features of our analysis are (i) that it allows dependent interarrival times and (ii) that the monotonicity proofs do not rely on the standard concavity-preservation arguments.