Part 3.2 : Changing Arrival Rate
Passengers do not arrive at a constant ate (i.e., homogeneous process) throughout the entire day in a real airport (even though they may arrive randomly),so we should expand our model to handle such changes .
Our approach is to allow the arrival rates to allow the arrival rates to change throughout the day .
To model this changing rate , we will use a data object in SIMIO Called a Rate Table and reference the Rate Table we create in the arrival logic of our Source object. It is important to understand that the interarrival times for this rate will be assumed to be Exponentially distributed, but the mean of this distribution changes with time.
If an interarrival process has an Exponential distribution , then it is known statistically that the number of arrivals per unit time is Poisson distributed.
Since the parameter (its mean ) changes with time, it is formally referred to as a "non-homogeneous Poisson " arrival process , also called a NHPP (Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process).
Therefore when you use SIMIO Rate Table you are assuming the arrival process is a NHPP. Error! eference source not found . Table 3.1 shows the hourly rate over the 24 hour day where more passengers on average arrive during the morning and dinner time hours .
The Zero rates imply no arrivals during that time period.