We investigate the asymptotic properties of the transient queue length process Q(t)=max(Q(0)+X(t)-ct, sup0≤s≤t(X(t)-X(s)-c(t-s))), t≥0, in the Gaussian fluid queueing model, where the input process X is modeled by a centered Gaussian process with stationary increments and c>0 is the output rate. More specifically, under some mild conditions on X and Q(0)=x≥0, we derive the exact asymptotics of πx,Tu(u)=ℙ(Q(Tu)>u) as u→∞. The interplay between u and Tu leads to two qualitatively different regimes: short-time horizon when Tu is relatively small with respect to u, and moderate- or long-time horizon when Tu is asymptotically much larger than u. As a by-product, we discuss the implications for the speed of convergence to stationarity of the model studied.

Let X(t), t ∈ ℝd, be a centered Gaussian random field with continuous trajectories and set ξu(t) = X(f(u)t), t ∈ ℝd, with f some positive function. Using classical results we can establish the tail asymptotics of ℙ{Γ(ξu) > u} as u → ∞ with Γ(ξu) = supt ∈ [0, T]d ξu(t), T > 0, by requiring that f(u) tends to 0 as u → ∞ with speed controlled by the local behavior of the correlation function of X. Recent research shows that for applications, more general functionals than the supremum should be considered and the Gaussian field can depend also on some additional parameter τu ∈ K say ξu,τu(t), t ∈ ℝd. In this paper we derive uniform approximations of ℙ{Γ(ξu,τu) > u} with respect to τu, in some index set Ku as u → ∞. Our main result has important theoretical implications; two applications are already included in Dȩbicki et al. (2016), (2017). In this paper we present three additional applications. First we derive uniform upper bounds for the probability of double maxima. Second, we extend the Piterbarg–Prisyazhnyuk theorem to some large classes of homogeneous functionals of centered Gaussian fields ξu. Finally, we show the finiteness of generalized Piterbarg constants.