The Borel Distribution: Approximation and Concentration

Abstract

We develop the tools necessary to use Stein's method for approximation by a Borel distribution, which we illustrate by considering the approximation of the number of customers served in the busy period of an M/G/1 queue. We further derive concentration inequalities for the Borel distribution. Both these sets of results are based on a representation for the size-biased version of a Borel random variable.