Artalejo Rodríguez, Jesús Manuel2023-06-202023-06-2019970305-054810.1016/S0305-0548(96)00076-7https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/57483We are grateful to the referees for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this article. We also acknowledge the support from DGICYT through operating grant PB95-0416.We consider an M/G/1 queue with repeated attempts in which the server operates under a general exhaustive service vacation policy. We develop a comprehensive analysis of the system including ergodicity, limiting behaviour, stochastic decomposition and optimal control. We would like to point out that the system size distribution decomposes into three random variables which are respectively associated with the vacation time, the retrial policy and the ordinary M/G/1 queue without vacations and repeated attempts.engjournal articlehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305054896000767http://www.sciencedirect.com/restricted access519.8Busy periodEmbedded Markov chainErgodicityNumber of served customersReliability analysisSteady-state distributionStochastic decompositionInvestigación operativa (Matemáticas)1207 Investigación Operativa