Related papers: On the coupon-collector's problem with several par…
In this paper the coupon collector's problem with group drawings is studied. Assume there are $ n $ different coupons. At each time precisely $ s $ of the $ n $ coupons are drawn, where all choices are supposed to have equal probability.…
In this paper we consider a scenario where there are several algorithms for solving a given problem. Each algorithm is associated with a probability of success and a cost, and there is also a penalty for failing to solve the problem. The…
In this paper we consider a system with two carousels operated by one picker. The items to be picked are randomly located on the carousels and the pick times follow a phase-type distribution. The picker alternates between the two carousels,…
In discrete time, customers arrive at random. Each waits until one of three servers is available; each thereafter departs at random. We seek the distribution of maximum line length of idle customers. Algebraic expressions obtained for the…
The classic Coupon-Collector Problem (CCP) is generalized to the extent that each coupons serves certain "purposes". Only basic probability theory is used. Centerpiece rather is an algorithm that efficiently counts all $k$-element…
A special customer must complete service from two servers in series, in either order, each with an M/M/1 queueing system. It is assumed that the two queueing system lengths are independent with initial numbers of customers a and b at the…
A detailed study of the waiting times for the first (multi)-collision in a drawing process.
We study the coupon collector with deterministic expiration: one coupon is drawn at each time, and each coupon remains active for exactly $M$ draws. Completion occurs when all $n$ coupon types are simultaneously active. Equivalently, the…
We analyze a tandem network of polling queues with two product types and two stations. We assume that external arrivals to the network follow a Poisson process, and service times at each station are exponentially distributed. For this…
In continuous time, customers arrive at random. Each waits until one of $c$ servers is available; each thereafter departs at random. The distribution of maximum line length of idle customers was studied over 25 years ago. We revisit two…
In this paper we models and studies a general vacation queueing model with impatient customers. We first propose a sufficient condition for the existence of the stationary workload process. We then give an integral equation for the…
An {\it Omnibus Sequence} of length $n$ is one that has each possible "message" of length $k$ embedded in it as a subsequence. We study various properties of Omnibus Sequences in this paper, making connections, whenever possible, to the…
The paper considers multivariate discrete random sums with equal number of summands. Such distributions describe the total claim amount received by a company in a fixed time point. In Queuing theory they characterize cumulative waiting…
We study the two-player coupon-collector competition in which two independent collectors draw one coupon each per round from a set of $d$ equally likely coupon types. Myers and Wilf gave finite formulae for several two-player events and…
In the coupon collector problem with $n$ items, the collector needs a random number of tries $T_n\simeq n\ln n$ to complete the collection. Also, after $nt$ tries, the collector has secured approximately a fraction…
In this paper, we consider multistopping problems for finite discrete time sequences $X_1,...,X_n$. $m$-stops are allowed and the aim is to maximize the expected value of the best of these $m$ stops. The random variables are neither assumed…
A basic question in the PAC model of learning is whether proper learning is harder than improper learning. In the classical case, there are examples of concept classes with VC dimension $d$ that have sample complexity $\Omega\left(\frac…
In this paper, we consider the number of both arrivals and departures seen by a tagged customer while in service in a classical $M/M/1$ processor sharing queue. By exploiting the underlying orthogonal structure of this queuing system…
Order picking is the problem of collecting a set of products in a warehouse in a minimum amount of time. It is currently a major bottleneck in supply-chain because of its cost in time and labor force. This article presents two exact and…
The Coupon Collector's Problem is one of the few mathematical problems that make news headlines regularly. The reasons for this are on one hand the immense popularity of soccer albums (called Paninimania) and on the other hand that no…