Before revision:  Blocking can be mitigated by increasing service capacity at congested stations, but purchasing these additional resources may be costly. Thus, finding the right resource allocation requires striking a careful balance between blocking and costs, a problem which is further complicated by the stochastic nature of the network.
After revision:  Blocking results in lost revenue due to customers or jobs being permanently removed from the system. We are interested in striking a balance between mitigating blocking by increasing service capacity, and maintaining low costs for service capacity. This problem is further complicated by the stochastic nature of the network.