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.
2. 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.
 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
 Which table? Poison because of final routing
Solution 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 1 2 3 4
6.0 7 0.6138 0.6138 1.000 .503 .411 .337 .276 .226 .083 .031 .011
6.0 8 0.3570 0.1785 0.500 .239 .160 .108 .072 .048 .007 .001
6.0 9 0.1960 0.0653 0.333 .108 .059 .032 .018 .010
6.0 10 0.1013 0.0253 0.250 .046 .020 .009 .004 .002
6.0 11 0.0492 0.0098 0.200 .018 .007 .002 .001

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!