I had no idea queuing calculations were so complex until I started trying to figure out the best way to utilize playing courts!
In my case, we have 15 pickleball courts (kind of like tennis) and we need to decide between two (2) queuing methods:
1) Form a single line and players go to the next available court, with the players that just left the court going to the back of the line.
2) Players select a court at random and wait for that particular court to become available. If no players are waiting to get on a particular court, the team that occupies the court can play another game.
Using either method, I'm assuming the courts would be occupied 100% of the time either by new players from the line or players playing another game because no one was waiting for their particular court. So court (server) utilization is 100%.
My sense tells me the first method would be more fair in that all players (customers) should get roughly equal playing time; i.e., equally distributed among all the players. Using the second method, if I happen to pick a court where the game before me was just starting or going long, and yet a court next to me became available (assume I can't switch my choice,) I could be standing around for longer than if I was in a queue waiting for the next available court. On the other hand, I might get lucky and pick a court where someone is almost finished with their game so I might get on the court quicker than if I was in the queue.
Games take an average of 20 minutes but could vary from, say, 5 minutes to 40 minutes. Each court handles 4 players so we can handle up to 60 players at one time (although it makes things simpler to think of 1 player per court for a total of 15 players.)
Which system is more fair?
The number of players varies throughout the day from, say, <60 to 120 and then back to <60. Is the choice of method influenced by the total number of players in the queue?
Thanks for your assistance.
In my case, we have 15 pickleball courts (kind of like tennis) and we need to decide between two (2) queuing methods:
1) Form a single line and players go to the next available court, with the players that just left the court going to the back of the line.
2) Players select a court at random and wait for that particular court to become available. If no players are waiting to get on a particular court, the team that occupies the court can play another game.
Using either method, I'm assuming the courts would be occupied 100% of the time either by new players from the line or players playing another game because no one was waiting for their particular court. So court (server) utilization is 100%.
My sense tells me the first method would be more fair in that all players (customers) should get roughly equal playing time; i.e., equally distributed among all the players. Using the second method, if I happen to pick a court where the game before me was just starting or going long, and yet a court next to me became available (assume I can't switch my choice,) I could be standing around for longer than if I was in a queue waiting for the next available court. On the other hand, I might get lucky and pick a court where someone is almost finished with their game so I might get on the court quicker than if I was in the queue.
Games take an average of 20 minutes but could vary from, say, 5 minutes to 40 minutes. Each court handles 4 players so we can handle up to 60 players at one time (although it makes things simpler to think of 1 player per court for a total of 15 players.)
Which system is more fair?
The number of players varies throughout the day from, say, <60 to 120 and then back to <60. Is the choice of method influenced by the total number of players in the queue?
Thanks for your assistance.
