  Retrial phenomenon naturally arises in various systems such as call centers,
cellular networks and random access protocols in local area networks. This
paper gives a comprehensive survey on theory and applications of retrial queues
in these systems. We investigate the state of the art of the theoretical
researches including exact solutions, stability, asymptotic analyses and
multidimensional models. We present an overview on retrial models arising from
real world applications. Some open problems and promising research directions
are also discussed.
