Resource pooling in the presence of failures: Efficiency versus risk

This paper studies the effects of resource pooling on system performance in the presence of failures. The goal is to understand whether pooling increases efficiency and/or reduces risk. We consider four queueing systems with different degrees of pooling (one has no pooling, one has only queues pooled, one has queues and failures pooled, and one has servers pooled), estimate efficiency via the mean number of customers in each system, and assess …