  Multiclass open queueing networks find wide applications in communication,
computer and fabrication networks. Often one is interested in steady-state
performance measures associated with these networks. Conceptually, under mild
conditions, a regenerative structure exists in multiclass networks, making them
amenable to regenerative simulation for estimating the steady-state performance
measures. However, typically, identification of a regenerative structure in
these networks is difficult. A well known exception is when all the
interarrival times are exponentially distributed, where the instants
corresponding to customer arrivals to an empty network constitute a
regenerative structure. In this paper, we consider networks where the
interarrival times are generally distributed but have exponential or heavier
tails. We show that these distributions can be decomposed into a mixture of
sums of independent random variables such that at least one of the components
is exponentially distributed. This allows an easily implementable embedded
regenerative structure in the Markov process. We show that under mild
conditions on the network primitives, the regenerative mean and standard
deviation estimators are consistent and satisfy a joint central limit theorem
useful for constructing asymptotically valid confidence intervals. We also show
that amongst all such interarrival time decompositions, the one with the
largest mean exponential component minimizes the asymptotic variance of the
standard deviation estimator.
