Help with Traffic Engineering

Dr. Roger G. Clery Roosevelt University January 2006

(CC)

What A Switch Does

1. Routes calls / messages to and from senders / receivers. 2. Concentrates circuits. More Inputs than outputs. Saves $. 3. Causes blockage and delays. 4. May collects statistics and billing information.

What An Automatic Call Distributor Does

1. Queues customers in line. Makes em wait! 2. Distributes calls more evenly to agents. 3. May keep statistics on agents 4. May be connected to computer system; CTI Computer Telephone Integration for Screen pops to agents

What Types of Problems Can be Solved

1. PBX Private Branch Exchange number of trunks required to the CO of the telephone company 2. Cellular telephone circuits/ frequencies required at cell site. 3. Agents required at a call center. 4. Circuits/ trunks required between telephone switches. 5. Trunks/ circuits required for emergency service fire, police, security services

Which Table to Use?

1. Calls Queued Agents required Help desk, Call center then Erlang C table. 2. Emergency services, final routing for telephone company or Cell sites Poisson table 3. All other use the Erlang B table.

Components of the Tables

1. Lines trunks circuits agents: always in whole numbers 1,2,3,4 etc. 2. Traffic measured in units called Erlangs. One Erlang is 3600 seconds of traffic. One Erlang is 60 minutes of traffic. 3600 seconds = 60 minutes.
Can also be measured in CCS. One CCS = 100 seconds. 36 CCS = 1 Erlang.

3. Grade of service. Probability that a call will be blocked. Smaller is better! P.01 = 1 % = 1 out of a 100. P 0.1 = 10% = 1 out of 10 blocked.

B Table

Percent Blocked

N = Trunks

Traffic in Erlangs

Poisson Table

Probability of Blockage

Trunks

Traffic in Erlangs

C Table
The C table adds some additional information. The average length of a call must be known usually in minutes The probability of blockage is replaced by probability of being queued. Number of agents replaces number of trunks. Average Delay of all calls can be estimated Average Delay of Delayed calls can be estimated. Probability that a customer will wait a given time can be estimated.

C Table
1. Select the correct group based on Erlangs of Traffic. For A= 0.1 use 1st group. Using the Pd, the probability of delay select the correct N, for level of service = 5% 0.1000 is to high 0.0048 is best choice available 0.0002 is too good.

2.

C Table
3. Multiply D1 by Talk time. If Talk time is 12 minutes then 0.0025 X 12 = .03 minutes .03 x 60 = 1.8 seconds

4. Multiply D2 by Talk time. 0.526 x 12 = 6.312 minutes

C Table
5. Convert all t times to minutes .2 x 12 = 2.4 minutes .4 x 12 = 4.8 minutes .6 x 12 = 7.2 minutes .8 x 12 = 9.6 minutes 1 x 12 = 12 minutes 2 x 12 = 24 minutes 3 x 12 = 36 minutes

6. What is the probability of a delay of 9.6 minutes? .001

Using a table
Some judgment is required. If traffic is 2.2 Erlangs and there is an entry for 2.018 This is close enough. If you are required to select the grade of service consider the consequence. If this is a Pizza take out place and an order is lost no big deal If you are in cardiac arrest and you are calling 911 then this call is very important.

Solving a problem
Sam Samarian is opening up an insurance sales office. 6 agents will be selling insurance and at peek times the will spend 20 minutes per hour on the phone. Each agent will have her/his own phone on their desk. Each phone is connected to the PBX. How many trunks required? Grade of service is to be 7% = .07 Solution: Minutes of talk = 6 x 20 = 120 Erlangs = 120/60 = 2 Erlangs Which table PBX no queue PBX NO emergency = B table

Solving a problem
Find .07 Column Find 2 Erlangs or better 2.504 Using this row read to left find N=5

5 trunks are required.

Question? What happens if one more trunks is added? Answer: Service improves! Probability of blockage goes down to about 0.01

Solving Another problem

Butter and Fat Turkey company has a turkey hot line for Thanksgiving day. Up to 40 customers call in the busy hour and each call takes about 4 minutes to complete. If the level of service is to be = < 8% then how many turkey helpers are required? What is the average delay? What is the delay of delayed calls? Does anybody needing assistance wait 12 minutes?

Solving Another problem

1. How much traffic is generated? 40 X 4 = 160 minutes = 160/60 = 2.66 Erlangs 2. Which table calls will wait callers will be queued C table

C Table
2.66 Closest group is 2.7 8% = .08 Closest but smaller is 0.0652 6 Turkey helpers required D1 = 0.0197 Delay of all calls is 0.0197 x 4 = 0.0788 minutes = 4.728 seconds D2 = 0.303 Delay of delayed calls is 0.303 x4 = 1.212 minutes Delay of 12 minutes? t1 = 4 minutes t2 = 8 minutes t3 = 12 minutes There is no value under 3 because the value is too small so NO Chance of waiting 12 minutes

Solving Yet Another Problem

Cell site on remote mountain is to be connected to the MTSO by a microwave link. How many channels are required for the voice traffic if the max busy hour traffic is 2.5 Erlangs and Grade of service is .001

Solution

Which table? Poison because of final routing Required .001 9 channels = 2.453 10 = 2.961 I would recommend 10 channels and better service, but 9 could squeeze by. (note: a B table would say 9 is fine handling 2.56 Erlangs)

Try this one

PBX will handle 21 Erlangs and grade of service is P 0.05

Answer
B Table 20.943 close enough to 21 26 trunks

Try this one

Call Center 45 calls per hour, 8 minutes per call, service level 10%

Answer: use C table

45 x 8 = 360 minutes 360 minutes / 60 = 6 Erlangs
|A N Pd D1 D2 PROBABILITY OF DELAY OF TIME t

.2

.4

.6

.8

6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0

7 8 9 10 11

0.6138 0.3570 0.1960 0.1013 0.0492

0.6138 0.1785 0.0653 0.0253 0.0098

1.000 0.500 0.333 0.250 0.200

.503 .239 .108 .046 .018

.411 .160 .059 .020 .007

.337 .108 .032 .009 .002

.276 .072 .018 .004 .001

.226 .083 .031 .011 .048 .007 .001 .010 .002

10 agents = 0.1013 10% .0253 x 8 = .2026 minutes =12.14 seconds 0.250 x 8 = 2 minutes .002 = .2% chance of 6.4 minute delay

The END

Clerys Law: 82% of any job is understanding the problem!