The Optimum Design of a Tandem Computer Buffer in a System for Remote Data Collection

It is anticipated that computer-communications systems designed for the purpose of transmitting data from geographically clustered terminals to a remote computer will employ multiplexing techniques in order to reduce transmission costs. A procedure is described for determining, under three criteria, the optimum computer buffer size assuming that the data traffic arriving at the multiplexer is Poisson and that the multiplexer and data link (transmission line) can, together, be represented by a constant-holding-time server. The approach taken is that since the computer is in tandem with the multiplexer and data link, we can make use of analytical results on the output process of an M/D/1 queueing system (the multiplexer and data link) in order to design the computer buffer. A comparison is made between the proposed procedure, the "worst case" designs, and other possible analytical approaches to the problem.