Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ii / Paper 3 / 27J / a

In Kendall notation, the first two letters $M$ mean Poisson arrivals and exponential service times. An M-M-1 queue has arrival rate $\lambda$, one server of rate $\mu$, and queue-length transitionsIt has a stationary distribution of an M-M-1 queue exactly whenand then

An M-M-infinity queue has infinitely many servers, so every customer begins service immediately. Its occupancy transitions areThe detailed balance for a birth-death process equations giveThus for every $\lambda ,\mu >0$ the stationary distribution of an M-M-infinity queue exists and isthe Poisson distribution of mean $\rho$. The Burke theorem for an M-M-infinity queue states that in this stationary regime the departure process is a Poisson process of rate $\lambda$; equivalently, time reversal turns departures into arrivals. The past departure process is also independent of the number in the system at the observation time.