A single-server retrial queue consists of a primary queue, an orbit and a single server. Assume the primary queue capacity is 1 and the orbit capacity is infinite. Customers can arrive at the primary queue either from outside the system or from the orbit. If the server is busy, the arriving customer joins the orbit and conducts a retrial later. Otherwise, he receives service and leaves the system.
We investigate the stability condition for a single-server retrial queue. Let λ be the arrival rate and 1/μ be the mean service time. It has been proved that λ/μ < 1 is a sufficient stability condition for the M/G/1/1 retrial queue with exponential retrial times. We give a counterexample to show that this stability condition is not valid for general single-server retrial queues. Next we show that λ /μ < 1 is a sufficient stability condition for the stability of a single-server retrial queue when the interarrival times and retrial times are finite mixtures of Erlangs.
