Trunking - continuation

To design trunked radio systems that can handle a specific capacity at a specific “grade of service,” it is
essential to understand trunking theory and queuing theory. The fundamentals of trunking theory were
developed by Erlang. Today, the measure of traffic intensity bears his name. One Erlang represents the amount
of traffic intensity carried by a channel that is completely occupied (i.e. one call-hour per hour or one call-
minute per minute). For example, a radio channel that is occupied for thirty minutes during an hour carries 0.5
Erlangs of traffic.

The grade of service (GOS) is a measure of the ability of a user to access a trunked system during the
busiest hour. The busy hour is based upon customer demand at the busiest hour during a week, month, or year.
The grade of service is a benchmark used to define the desired performance of a particular trunked system by
specifying a desired likelihood of a user obtaining channel access given a specific number of channels avail-
able in the system. It is the wireless designer’s job to estimate the maximum required capacity and to allocate
the proper number of channels in order to meet the GOS. GOS is typically given as the likelihood that a call is
blocked, or the likelihood of a call experiencing a delay greater than a certain queuing time.

Definitions of Common Terms Used in Trunking Theory

Set-up Time: The time required to allocate a trunked radio channel to a requesting user.

Blocked Call: Call which cannot be completed at time of request, due to congestion. Also referred
to as a lost call.

Holding Time: Average duration of a typical call. Denoted by H (in seconds).

Traffic Intensity: Measure of channel time utilization, which is the average channel occupancy
measured in Erlangs. This is a dimensionless quantity and may be used to measure the time utiliza-
tion of single or multiple channels. Denoted by A.

Load: Traffic intensity across the entire trunked radio system, measured in Erlangs.

Grade of Service (GOS): A measure of congestion which is specified as the probability of a call
being blocked (for Erlang B), or the probability of a call being delayed beyond a certain amount of
time (for Erlang C).

Request Rate: The average number of call requests per unit time. Denoted by λ seconds-1.

The traffic intensity offered by each user is equal to the call request rate multiplied by the holding time.
That is, each user generates a traffic intensity of Au Erlangs given by

Au = λ H (1)

where H is the average duration of a call and λ is the average number of call requests per unit time for each
user. For a system containing U users and an unspecified number of channels, the total offered traffic intensity
A, is given as

A = U Au (2)

Furthermore, in a C channel trunked system, if the traffic is equally distributed among the channels, then the
traffic intensity per channel, Ac, is given as

Ac = U Au /C (3)

Note that the offered traffic is not necessarily the traffic which is carried by the trunked system, only
that which is offered to the trunked system. When the offered traffic exceeds the maximum capacity of the
system, the carried traffic becomes limited due to the limited capacity (i.e. limited number of channels). The
maximum possible carried traffic is the total number of channels, C, in Erlangs.

There are two types of trunked systems which are commonly used. The first type offers no queuing for call
requests. That is, for every user who requests service, it is assumed there is no setup time and the user is given
immediate access to a channel if one is available. If no channels are available, the requesting user is blocked
without access and is free to try again later. This type of trunking is called blocked calls cleared and assumes
that calls arrive as determined by a Poisson distribution. Furthermore, it is assumed that there are an infinite
number of users as well as the following: (a) there are memoryless arrivals of requests, implying that all users,
including blocked users, may request a channel at any time; (b) the probability of a user occupying a channel is
exponentially distributed, so that longer calls are less likely to occur as described by an exponential
distribution; and (c) there are a finite number of channels available in the trunking pool. This is known as an
M/M/m/m queue, and leads to the derivation of the Erlang B formula (also known as the blocked calls
cleared formula). The Erlang B formula determines the probability that a call is blocked and is a measure of
the GOS for a trunked system which provides no queuing for blocked calls. The Erlang B formula is given by

(4)

where, C is the number of trunked channels offered by a trunked radio system and A is the total offered traffic.
While it is possible to model trunked systems with finite users, the resulting expressions are much more
complicated than the Erlang B result, and the added complexity is not warranted for typical trunked systems
which have users that outnumber available channels by orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the Erlang B
formula provides a conservative estimate of the GOS, as the finite user results always predict a smaller
likelihood of blocking.

The second kind of trunked system is one in which a queue is provided to hold calls which are blocked.
If a channel is not available immediately, the call request may be delayed until a channel becomes available.
This type of trunking is called Blocked Calls Delayed, and its measure of GOS is defined as the probability
that a call is blocked after waiting a specific length of time in the queue. To find the GOS, it is first necessary to
find the likelihood that a call is initially denied access to the system. The likelihood of a call not having
immediate access to a channel is determined by the Erlang C formula derived is

(5)

If no channels are immediately available the call is delayed, and the probability that the delayed call is
forced to wait more than t seconds is given by the probability that a call is delayed, multiplied by the
conditional probability that the delay is greater than t seconds. The GOS of a trunked system where blocked
calls are delayed is hence given by

P r [ d e l a y > t ] = P r [ d e l a y > 0 ] P r [ d e l a y > t \ d e l a y > 0] (6)

 = P r [ d e l a y > 0]exp(-(C-A ) t / H )
The average delay D for all calls in a queued system is given by

(7)

where, the average delay for those calls which are queued is given by H/(C - A ) .