# How to Define Process-Based Routing¶

Ciw has the capability to run simulations with process-based routing. This means a customer’s entire route is determined at the start and not determined probablistically as they progress through the network. This allows routes to account for an individuals history, for example, repeating nodes a certain number of times.

A customer’s entire route is determined at the start, generated from a routing function, that takes in an individual and returns a route, which is a list of the order of the nodes. For example:

>>> def routing_function(ind):
...     return [1, 2, 2, 1]


This takes in an individual at Node 1 and assigns it the route [1, 2, 2, 1]. Then after service at Node 1 the individual is sent to Node 2, then back Node 2, then back to Node 1, before exiting the system. Ensuring the exact repetition of these nodes would not be possible in a purely probabilistic system.

In order to utilise this, we replace the routing matrix with a list of these routing functions to be used at each starting point. For example:

>>> import ciw

>>> def repeating_route(ind):
...     return [1, 1, 1]

>>> N = ciw.create_network(
...     arrival_distributions=[ciw.dists.Exponential(rate=1)],
...     service_distributions=[ciw.dists.Exponential(rate=2)],
...     number_of_servers=[1],
...     routing=[repeating_route]
... )


Here, customers arrive at Node 1, and have service there and then repeat this two more times before exiting the system.

Let’s run this and look at the routes of those that have left the system.

>>> ciw.seed(0)
>>> Q = ciw.Simulation(N)
>>> Q.simulate_until_max_time(100.0)

>>> inds = Q.nodes[-1].all_individuals # Get's all individuals from exit node
>>> set([tuple(dr.node for dr in ind.data_records) for ind in inds]) # Get's all unique routes of completed individuals
{(1, 1, 1)}


Now we can see that all individuals who have left the system, that is they have completed their route, repeated service at Node 1 three times.

## Important Notice¶

How it works: You can think of this as, when an individual arrives at their first node, based on their arrival_distributions, it is assigned a route that should start at this Node. This will ensure that the first Node which an individual arrives at is the same as the first Node in their assigned route.

If this is not the case then the error 'Individual process route sent to wrong node' will occur.

Make sure that the routing function for Node $$i$$ yields routes that begin with Node $$i$$.

## Further example¶

The routing functions can be as complicated as necessary. They take in an individual, and therefore can take in any attribute of an individual when determining the route (including their customer_class).

Lets make a network with three nodes with the following routes:

• For customers arriving at Node 1:

• if individual has an even id_number, repeat Node 1 twice, then exit.

• otherwise route from Node 1 to Node 2, to Node 3, and then exit.

• Arrivals at Node 2:

• have 50% chance of routing to Node 3, and then exit.

• have 50% chance of routing to Node 1, and then exit.

• There are no arrivals at Node 3.

For this we will require two routing functions: routing_function_Node_1, routing_function_Node_2:

>>> def routing_function_Node_1(ind):
...     if ind.id_number % 2 == 0:
...         return [1, 1, 1]
...     return [1, 2, 3]

>>> import random
>>> def routing_function_Node_2(ind):
...     if random.random() <= 0.5:
...         return [2, 3]
...     return [2, 1]


As there are no arrivals at Node 3, no customer will need routing assigned here. However, we need to use the placeholder function ciw.no_routing to account for this:

>>> N = ciw.create_network(
...     arrival_distributions=[ciw.dists.Exponential(rate=1),
...                            ciw.dists.Deterministic(value=1),
...                            ciw.dists.NoArrivals()],
...     service_distributions=[ciw.dists.Exponential(rate=2),
...                            ciw.dists.Exponential(rate=2),
...                            ciw.dists.Exponential(rate=2)],
...     number_of_servers=[1,1,1],
...     routing=[routing_function_Node_1,
...              routing_function_Node_2,
...              ciw.no_routing]
... )