Message delays using prioritized packet switching

Message inputs from packet switching nodes, individual user terminals, and host computers having high speed trunks to the packet switch, may be multiplexed by means of the packet switching nodes themselves. A packet switching node is presently modeled as a single server queueing system in which class c messages have J(c) packets. Each packet has a length drawn from a general service time distribution, prescribed on the basis of the packet's position in the message, and all packets are serviced by the trunk under a nonpreemptive priority discipline where each packet has a prescribed priority. Numerically examined cases include that of messages in a given class which have fixed length packets of equal priority.