We present a novel approach to the study of a multichannel cutoff priority system for two Poisson arrival streams with distinct arrival rates and the same exponential service time distribution. This new approach allows us to obtain the state probabilities in simple closed- form expressions that were not previously available in the literature, except through rather complex generating functions.
These expressions provide a straightforward way to derive the distribution of the number of busy servers, the queue length distribution, and, above all, yield a very simple criterion for the stability of the system. More importantly, the computations can still be easily carried out for large systems (e.g., 100 servers). Furthermore, the method can be extended from the infinite queue length case to a system with finite capacity. As applied to cellular radio, the method offers a means of increasing the total carried traffic while improving the perceived service quality.