Mean value analysis

In queueing theory, a discipline within the mathematical theory of probability, mean value analysis (MVA) is a recursive technique for computing expected queue lengths, waiting time at queueing nodes and throughput in equilibrium for a closed separable system of queues. The first approximate techniques were published independently by Schweitzer and Bard, followed later by an exact version by Lavenberg and Reiser published in 1980.

It is based on the arrival theorem, which states that when one customer in an M-customer closed system arrives at a service facility he/she observes the rest of the system to be in the equilibrium state for a system with M − 1 customers.