A perturbation analysis approach to phantom estimators for waiting times in the G/G/1 queue.

We study gradient estimation for waiting times in the G/G/1 queue. We propose a new estimator based on a synthesis of perturbation analysis and weak differentiation. More specifically, we combine the perturbation propagation rules from perturbation analysis with perturbation generation rules from weak differentiation. This leads to an on-line phantom estimator. Numerical experiments show that this estimator has smaller work normalized variance than IPA. © The Author(s) 2009.