The M|G|1 retrial queue with nonpersistent customers and orbital search is considered. If the server is busy at the time of arrival of a primary customer, then with probability 1 − H ₁ it leaves the system without service, and with probability H ₁ > 0, it enters into an orbit. Similarly, if the server is occupied at the time of arrival of an orbital customer, with probability 1 − H ₂, it leaves the system without service, and with probability H ₂ > 0, it goes back to the orbit. Immediately after the completion of each service, the server searches for customers in the orbit with probability p > 0, and remains idle with probability 1 − p. Search time is assumed to be negligible. In the case H ₂ = 1, the model is analyzed in full detail using the supplementary variable method. The joint distribution of the server state and the orbit length in steady state is studied. The structure of the busy period and its analysis in terms of Laplace transform is discussed. We also provide a direct method of calculation for the first and second moment of the busy period. In the case H ₂ < 1, closed form solution is obtained for exponentially distributed service time, in terms of hypergeometric series.

This article introduces an additional control policy—the N-policy–into (s, S) inventory system with positive service time. Under specified interarrival and service time distributions, which are independent of each other, we obtain the necessary and sufficient condition for the system to be stable. We also obtain the optimal values of the control variables s, S, and N; it is seen that the cost function attains the minimum value at s = 0. It is also shown that the cost function is separately convex in the variables S and N. Numerical illustrations are provided. Several measures of performance of the system are evaluated.

Single server retrial queueing models in which customers arrive according to a batch Poisson process are considered here. An arriving batch, finding the server busy, enters an orbit. Otherwise, one customer from the arriving batch enters for service immediately while the rest join the orbit. The customers from the orbit (the orbital customers) try to reach the server subsequently with the inter-retrial times exponentially distributed. Additionally, at each service completion epoch, two different search mechanisms, that is, type I and type II search, to bring the orbital customers by the system to service, are switched on. Thus, when the server is idle, a competition takes place among primary customers, customers who come by retrial and by two types of searches. The type I search selects a single customer whereas the type II search considers a batch of customers from the orbit. Depending on the maximum size of the batch being considered for service by a type II search, two cases are addressed here. In the first case, no restriction on batch size is assumed, whereas in the second case, maximum size of the batch is restricted to a pre-assigned value. We call the resulting models as model 1 and model 2 respectively. In all service modes other than type II search, only a single customer is qualified for service. Service times of the four types of customers, namely, primary, repeated, and those who come by two types of searches are arbitrarily distributed (with different distributions which are independent of each other). Steady state analysis is performed and stability conditions are established. A control problem for model 2 is considered and numerical illustrations are provided.