Bottleneck-Aware Resource Allocation for Service Processes: A New Max-Min Approach

In 5G systems and beyond, traditional generic service models are no longer appropriate for highly customized and intelligent services. The process of reinventing service models involves allocating available resources, where the performance of service processes is determined by the activity node with the lowest service rate. This paper proposes a new bottleneck-aware resource allocation approach by formulating the resource allocation as a max-min problem. The approach can allocate resources proportional to the workload of each activity, which can guarantee that the service rates of activities within a process are equal or close-to-equal. Based on the business process simulator (i.e., BIMP) simulation results show that the approach is able to reduce the average cycle time and improve resource utilization, as compared to existing alternatives. The results also show that the approach can effectively mitigate the impact of bottleneck activity on the performance of service processes.