Erlang for Christmas Shoppers: Why the other checkout line is faster than yours

The Erlang-B calculation is used in telephony systems to describe the probability of call loss on a group of circuits without call buffering. It is however not limited to telephone networks, since it describes a probability in a queuing system.

Based on this concept, Bill Hammack from the University of Illinois explains why the other checkout lines during your Christmas Shopping are most likely moving faster than yours, in case you’ve ever wondered 🙂

Merry Christmas from the Sipwise Team, and next year you’re hopefully in the faster queue.