ECNG 4308: Telecommunications Systems

Module 1: Telecommunications Basics

Dr. Yasser Gadallah

Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
The American University in Cairo
Telecommunication

• Telecommunication deals with the service of

providing communications at a distance
• A large business with huge investments
– Serves a large population with different needs
– Relies on highly skilled technical personnel
• May be private or open to public access
– The latter are government-owned telecommunication
companies, or private corporations, that sell their
services publicly
Telecommunication System Classification:
According to System Hierarchy
Telecommunication System Classification:
According to Communication Media
Telecommunication System Classification:
According to Information Type
Elements of a Telecommunication System
1. End System (Instruments)
2. Transmission System
3. Switching System
4. Signaling System
Terminology – 1 (chapter 1 of the “Freeman” text book)
• Subscriber (calling, called): holder of a telecom station
• Traffic: a term that quantifies usage
• A call: the telecom user session; initiated at a traffic
source and received at traffic sink(s)
• Local Exchange, Central Office: the premises that
contains the equipment (switches, routers) that
connects the subscribers to the network
• Subscriber lines, Lines, Local loops: lines connecting a
subscriber to the switch or exchange that serves the
subscriber
Terminology – 2

• Trunks (North America), Junctions (Europe): lines

connecting one telephone switch or exchange with
another
• Concentration: is the line-to-trunk ratio
• Trunk Exchange: a central exchange within each
region to connect local exchanges thus reducing
(mesh) connections between local exchanges
• Trunk Tandem (Transit) Exchange: provides
connectivity between each of the trunk exchanges
Terminology – 3

• Local Area: the geographical area with a number

of local exchanges where a subscriber can call any
others without extra (toll) charges for a call
• Toll Area, Long Distance: the area outside the
subscriber’s geographical area. Calling incurs
extra (toll) charges
• A network: a grouping of interworking local
exchanges (central offices)
Telecommunication Network Configurations (chapter 1
of the “Freeman” text book)

• A network in telecommunications may be defined as a

method of connecting exchanges so that any one subscriber
in the network can communicate with any other subscriber
• There is a number of different ways to interconnect
switches
Fully Connected Mesh Networks
• Every switch (exchange) is connected to all other
switches (or nodes)
• Very robust: a number of possible alternative routes
• Complexity increases with the increase of nodes
• Used when there are comparatively high traffic levels
between exchanges
Star Networks
• Utilizes an intervening exchange, called a tandem
exchange, such that each and every exchange is
interconnected via a single tandem exchange
• Probably the least survivable but has least complexity
• One of the most economic connections
• May be applied when traffic levels between exchanges
are comparatively low
Double Star Networks

• Sets of pure star sub-networks are connected via

higher-order tandem exchanges
• Used to decrease the complexity of mesh
connections
Mesh-Star Hybrid Connections
Higher-Order (Hierarchical) Star Networks

Highly traveled shortcut/High-Usage (HU) route

Actual Telecommunication Network Topologies

*
Source: Valdar – Ch. 1
Traffic Engineering (chapter 1 of the “Freeman” text book)

• Traffic is a term that quantifies usage

• It is most important in telecommunication
engineering to determine the number of trunks
required on a route/connection between exchanges
• This is called “dimensioning” the route
• Dimensioning a route requires having some idea
of its usage – that is, how many people will wish
to communicate at once over the route
Traffic Engineering – Terminology – 1
• Usage may be defined by two parameters
– Calling rate: the number of times a route or traffic path is used per
unit period
– Holding time: the duration of occupancy of a traffic path by a call
• Traffic path: a channel, time slot, frequency band, line, trunk,
switch, or circuit over which individual communications pass in
sequence
• Carried traffic: the volume of traffic actually carried by a switch
• Offered traffic: the volume of traffic offered to a switch
• Time congestion: the decimal fraction of an hour during which all
trunks are busy simultaneously
• Call congestion: the number of calls that fail at first attempt (lost
calls)
Traffic Engineering – Terminology – 2
• Busy Hour (BH): the continuously 60–minute
period during which the traffic volume or number
of call attempts is highest
Traffic Engineering – Terminology – 3
• Traffic Density: represents the number of
simultaneous calls at a given moment
• Traffic Intensity: represents the average traffic
density during a 1-h period. Used in the
calculation for dimensioning of switches
• Erlang: The unit of measuring traffic intensity.
1Erlang = a 60-minute call in one hour
• Centrum-Call-Seconds (CCS): the number of 100-
call-seconds in a busy hour. It is a measure of the
unit call (UC). 1 Elrang = 36 CCS
 Traffic Measurement – 1
• Traffic measurements used for long-term network planning
are usually based on the traffic in the busy hour (BH) -
usually based on observations/studies
• The traditional traffic measurements on trunks during a
measurement interval are:
– Peg count—calls offered
– Usage—traffic carried (in CCS or Erlangs)
– Overflow—call encountering all trunks busy
• Traffic measurements for short-term network management
purposes are usually concerned with detecting network
congestion.
Traffic Measurement – 2
• For short-term calculations
– Calls carried, peg count, and overflow count can be
used to calculate attempts per circuit per hour (ACH)
and connections per circuit per hour (CCH)
– These measurements are calculated over very short
time periods (e.g., 10-min intervals)
• The traffic flow, A, is expressed as:
A = C × T,
where, C = number of calls originated during a period of one hour
T = the average holding time, given in hours
** A is expressed in Erlangs
 Example

Determine the traffic in Erlangs and CCS for

a trunk group carrying 1000 calls during the
busy hour with an average call-holding time
of 3 minutes.
Solution

A = 1000 (calls during BH) × 3 min (ave call hold time) /60 = 50 Erlangs

(50 Erl)(36 CCS/Erl) = 1800 CCS

Call Blockage and Grade of Service (GOS) – 1
• The telephone system resources are designed on
the basis of BH assumptions
• When the number of calls for which the system is
designed are encountered, the system is assumed
to handle them properly
• However, extra calls may be encountered during
the BH that exceed the allocated resources
• A design tradeoff must be made in such a way
that not too many calls will be blocked but at the
same time this is done in an economical way
Call Blockage and Grade of Service (GOS) – 2
• Grade of service (GOS) expresses the probability of
encountering blockage during the BH:
GOS = number of lost calls/Total no. of offered calls
• Therefore, GOS is the probability that a call offered to the
group will find available trunks already occupied on first
attempt
• This probability depends on a number of factors
– the distribution in time and duration of offered traffic
– the number of traffic sources [limited or high (infinite)]
– the availability of trunks in a group to traffic sources (full or
restricted availability)
– the manner in which lost calls are handled
Traffic Distribution
• Telephone-call originations in any particular area are random in
nature
• Originating calls or call arrivals at an exchange were found to follow
a Poisson distribution
• Poisson distribution is fundamental to traffic theory
• Most of the common probability-distribution curves are two-
parameter (mean, variance) curves
Variance-to-mean ratio (VMR), α = σ2/μ
α < 1 è smooth traffic
α > 1 è rough traffic
α = 1 è random traffic
Traffic Distribution – Poisson

• Poisson processes are quite important in the field of

communication networks, since they may model
the arrival of several events
• A Poisson process is used to describe the number,
Nt, of event arrivals in a given interval of duration t
• Denoting with λ the mean arrival rate, we have a
Poisson arrival process, if the following condition
holds
(lt )k

Pr ob{N = k} = e , for any interval of duration t

- lt

k!
t
Infinite and Finite Sources
• Traffic sources are assumed infinite or finite
• For infinite traffic sources
– the probability of call arrival is constant, does not
depend on the state of occupancy of the system
– It also implies an infinite number of call arrivals, each
with an infinitely small holding time
• Finite sources
– number of sources offering traffic to a group of trunks
or circuits is << the number of circuits
– arrival rate is proportional to the number of sources
that are not already engaged in sending a call
Availability
• It is convenient to describe switches in terms of
inlets and outlets in traffic engineering
• When a switch has full availability, each inlet has
access to each outlet
• With limited availability, not each free outlet can
be reached by inlets
Handling of Lost Calls

• Lost calls cleared (LCC): if an idle sever is not

immediately available, a call is cleared from
the system
• Lost calls held (LCH): if an idle sever is not
immediately available, the call is held for an
interval = the holding time
• Lost calls delayed (LCD): if an idle sever is not
immediately available, the call is queued until
an idle server is available
Traffic Formulas

• Dimensioning a route means that we want to find

the number of circuits that serve the route
• Several Formulas have been devised to determine
that number of circuits based on the BH traffic load
• Factors that determine which formula to use are:
– Call arrivals and holding time distribution
– Number of traffic sources
– Availability
– The way of handling of lost calls
Erlang B Loss Formula
• Calculates the probability of blockage at the switch
due to congestion or to all trunks busy (ATB)
• This formula assumes the following
– Traffic originates from an infinite number of sources
– Lost calls are cleared assuming zero holding time
– The number of trunks or servicing channels is limited
– Full availability exists (i.e. every source has equal
access to every server)
• This is expressed as grade of service (GOS) or the
probability of finding x channels busy
Erlang B Loss Formula (cont’d)

Erlang B formula is given as:

AN
EB = N !i
N A
å
where, i =0
i!
EB is the grade of service or the probability of
finding N channels busy
N = number of trunks or servicing channels
A = mean offered traffic in Erlangs
Traffic Formula Selection Guide
Alternate Routing
• If trunk groups were made so large
– All offered traffic would be carried
– The trunk group would not be economical
• Therefore, routing is used instead
• Only high-usage trunk groups are provided
with alternate routes