Lee's Notation

This article covers meaning & overview of Lee's Notation from operations perspective.

Published by MBA Skool Team in Operations and Supply Chain Terms Last Updated: May 24, 2023Read time:

What is Lee's Notation?

Kendall Lee’s notation is used in queuing theory as the standard system to describe and classify a queue model.

A/S/c/K/N/D

  • A – Arrival process
    • M - Poisson distribution; random arrival process
    • D – Degenerate distribution; Deterministic or fixed arrival rate
    • G – General distribution
    • E – Erlang distribution

 

  • S – Service time distribution
    • M – Exponential service time
    • D – Degenerate distribution; Deterministic or fixed service time
    • E – Erlang distribution

 

  • C – Number of servers
    • Can range from 1 to many

 

  • K – Capacity of the whole system, i.e., maximum number of customers allowed in queue plus those being serviced.
    • By default taken as infinity

 

  • N – Size of the population from where customers are coming.
    • By default taken as infinity

 

  • D – Queue discipline, i.e., the order in which the customers in queue are being served
    • FCFS – First come first serve; Default
    • LCFS – Last come first serve
    • SIRO – Service in random order
    • PS – Processor sharing
    • PNPN – Priority service

 

Example: M/M/1

This is a queue with poisson arrival process, exponential service time, one server, infinite system capacity, infinite calling population and FCFS order.


This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team which comprises of MBA students, management professionals, and industry experts. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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