1.

Introduction

[Link] S-38.145 - Introduction to Teletraffic Theory - Fall 2001 1

1. Introduction

Contents

• Purpose of Teletraffic Theory

• Teletraffic models
• Classical model for telephone traffic
• Classical model for data traffic

2
1. Introduction

Traffic point of view

• Telecommunication system from the traffic point of view:

incoming outgoing
users traffic system traffic

• Ideas:
– the system serves the incoming traffic
– the traffic is generated by the users of the system

3
1. Introduction

Interesting questions

• Given the system and incoming traffic,

what is the quality of service experienced by the user?

• Given the incoming traffic and required quality of service,

how should the system be dimensioned?

• Given the system and required quality of service,

what is the maximum traffic load?

4
1. Introduction

General purpose

• Determine relationships between the following three factors:

– quality of service
– traffic load
– system capacity

quality of service

system capacity traffic load

5
1. Introduction

Example

• Telephone call
– traffic = telephone calls by everybody
– system = telephone network
– quality of service = probability that the phone rings at the destination

1234567 PRRRR!!!

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1. Introduction

Relationships between the three factors

• Qualitatively, the relationships are as follows:

system capacity quality of service quality of service

traffic load traffic load system capacity

with given with given with given

quality of service system capacity traffic load

• To describe the relationships quantitatively,

mathematical models are needed

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1. Introduction

Teletraffic models

• Teletraffic models are stochastic (= probabilistic)

– systems themselves are usually deterministic
but traffic is typically stochastic
– “you never know, who calls you and when”
• It follows that the variables in these models are random variables, e.g.
– number of ongoing calls
– number of packets in a buffer
• Random variable is described by its distribution, e.g.
– probability that there are n ongoing calls
– probability that there are n packets in the buffer
• Stochastic process describes the temporal development of a random
variable

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1. Introduction

Related fields

• Probability Theory
• Stochastic Processes
• Queueing Theory
• Statistical Analysis (traffic measurements)
• Operations Research
• Optimization Theory
• Decision Theory (Markov decision processes)
• Simulation Techniques (object oriented programming)

9
1. Introduction

Difference between the real system and the model

• Typically,
– the model describes just one part or property of the real system under
consideration and even from one point of view
– the description is not very accurate but rather approximative
• Thus,
– caution is needed when conclusions are drawn

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1. Introduction

Practical goals

• Network planning
– dimensioning
– optimization
– performance analysis
• Network management and control
– efficient operation
– fault recovery
– traffic management
– routing
– accounting

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 1. Introduction

Literature

• Teletraffic Theory
– V. B. Iversen, Chapter 1 of “Teletraffic Engineering Handbook”, available from
[Link]
– J. Roberts, “Traffic Theory and the Internet”, available from
[Link]
– Teletronikk (1995) Vol. 91, Nr. 2/3, Special Issue on “Teletraffic”
– COST 242, Final report (1996) “Broadband Network Teletraffic”, Eds. J. Roberts,
U. Mocci, J. Virtamo, Springer
– J.M. Pitts and J.A. Schormans (1996) “Introduction to ATM Design and
Performance”, Wiley
• Queueing Theory
– L. Kleinrock (1975) “Queueing Systems, Volume I: Theory”, Wiley
– L. Kleinrock (1976) “Queueing Systems, Volume II: Computer Applications”, Wiley
– D. Bertsekas and R. Gallager (1992) “Data Networks”, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall
– P.G. Harrison and N.M. Patel (1993) “Performance Modelling of Communication
Networks and Computer Architectures”, Addison-Wesley
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1. Introduction

Contents

• Purpose of Teletraffic Theory

• Teletraffic models
• Classical model for telephone traffic
• Classical model for data traffic

13
1. Introduction

Teletraffic models

• Two phases in modelling:

– modelling of the incoming traffic Þ traffic model
– modelling of the system itself Þ system model
• Two types of system models:
– loss systems
– waiting/queueing systems
• These models can be combined to create models for whole
telecommunication networks
– loss network models
– queueing network models
• Next we will present a simple teletraffic model
– describing a single resource

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1. Introduction

Simple teletraffic model

• Customers arrive at rate λ (customers per time unit)

– 1/λ = average inter-arrival time
• Customers are served by n parallel servers
• When busy, a server serves at rate µ (customers per time unit)
– 1/µ = average service time of a customer
• There are m waiting places
• It is assumed that blocked customers (arriving in a full system) are lost
µ
1
λ m

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1. Introduction

Exercise

• Consider the simple teletraffic model presented above

– What is the traffic model?
– What is the system model?

µ
1
λ m

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1. Introduction

Pure loss system

• No waiting places (m = 0)
– If the system is full (with all n servers occupied) when a customer arrives,
she is not served at all but lost
– Some customers are lost
• From the customer’s point of view, it is interesting to know e.g.
– What is the probability that the system is full when she arrives?
• From the system’s point of view, it is interesting to know e.g.
– What is the utilization factor of the servers?
µ
1
λ

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1. Introduction

Pure waiting system

• Infinite number of waiting places (m = ∞)

– If all n servers are occupied when a customer arrives,
she occupies one of the waiting places
– No customers are lost but some of them have to wait before getting served
• From the customer’s point of view, it is interesting to know e.g.
– what is the probability that she has to wait “too long”?
• From the system’s point of view, it is interesting to know e.g.
– what is the utilization factor of the servers?
µ
1
λ ∞

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1. Introduction

Mixed system

• Finite number of waiting places (0 < m < ∞)

– If all n servers are occupied but there are free waiting places when a
customer arrives, she occupies one of the waiting places
– If all n servers and all m waiting places are occupied when a customer
arrives, she is not served at all but lost
– Some customers are lost and some customers have to wait before getting
served

µ
1
λ m

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1. Introduction

Infinite system

• Infinite number of servers (n = ∞)

– No customers are lost or even have to wait before getting served
• Sometimes,
– this hypothetical model can be used to get some approximate results for a
real system (with finite system capacity)
• Always,
– it gives bounds for the performance of a real system (with finite system
capacity)
– it is much easier to analyze than the corresponding finite capacity models

µ
1
λ
•
•
• ∞
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1. Introduction

Little’s formula

• Consider a system where

– new customers arrive at rate λ
• Assume stability: λ λ
– Every now and then, the system is empty
• Consequence:
– Customers depart from the system at rate λ
• Let
N = average nr of customers in the system
T = average time a customer spends in the system
• Little’s formula:

N = λT
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1. Introduction

Contents

• Purpose of the Teletraffic Theory

• Teletraffic models
• Classical model for telephone traffic
• Classical model for data traffic

22
1. Introduction

Classical model for telephone traffic

• Loss models have traditionally been used to describe (circuit-switched)

telephone networks
– Pioneering work made by Danish mathematician A.K. Erlang (1878-1929)
• Consider a link between two telephone exchanges
– traffic consists of the ongoing telephone calls on the link
• Erlang modelled this as a pure loss system (m = 0)
– customer = call µ
• λ = call arrival rate 1
– service time = (call) holding time λ
• h = 1/µ = average holding time
– server = channel on the link n
• n = nr of channels on the link

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1. Introduction

Traffic process

channel-by-channel call holding

occupation time
6
channels

5
4
3
2
1

time
call arrival times
blocked call
nr of channels
occupied
nr of channels

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
traffic volume time

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1. Introduction

Traffic intensity

• In telephone networks:

Traffic ↔ Calls
• The amount of traffic is described by the traffic intensity a
• By definition, the traffic intensity a is
the product of the arrival rate λ and the mean holding time h:

a = λh
• Note that the traffic intensity is a dimensionless quantity
• Anyway, the unit of the traffic intensity a is called erlang (erl)
– traffic of one erlang means that,
on the average, one channel is occupied

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1. Introduction

Example

• Consider a local exchange. Assume that,

– on the average, there are 1800 new calls in an hour, and
– the mean holding time is 3 minutes
• It follows that the traffic intensity is

a = 1800 ∗ 3 / 60 = 90 erlang
• If the mean holding time increases from 3 minutes to 10 minutes, then

a = 1800 ∗10 / 60 = 300 erlang

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1. Introduction

Characteristic traffic

• Here are typical characteristic traffics for some subscriber categories

(of ordinary telephone users):
– private subscriber: 0.01 - 0.04 erlang
– business subscriber: 0.03 - 0.06 erlang
– private branch exchange (PBX): 0.10 - 0.60 erlang
– pay phone: 0.07 erlang
• This means that, for example,
– a typical private subscriber uses from 1% to 4% of her time in the telephone
(during so called “busy hour”)
• Referring to the previous example, note that
– it takes between 2250 - 9000 private subscribers to generate 90 erlang
traffic

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1. Introduction

Blocking

• In a loss system some calls are lost

– a call is lost if all n channels are occupied when the call arrives
– the term blocking refers to this event
• There are (at least) two different types of blocking quantities:
– Call blocking Bc = probability that an arriving call finds all n channels
occupied = the fraction of calls that are lost
– Time blocking Bt = probability that all n channels are occupied at an
arbitrary time = the fraction of time that all n channels are occupied
• The two blocking quantities are not necessarily equal
– If calls arrive according to a Poisson process, then Bc = Bt
• Call blocking is a better measure for the quality of service experienced
by the subscribers but, typically, time blocking is easier to calculate

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1. Introduction

Call rates

• In a loss system each call is either lost or carried

• Thus, there are three types of call rates:
– λoffered = arrival rate of all call attempts
λoffered λcarried
– λcarried = arrival rate of carried calls
– λlost = arrival rate of lost calls λlost
• Note:

λoffered = λcarried + λlost = λ

λcarried = λ (1 − Bc )
λlost = λBc

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1. Introduction

Traffic streams

• The three call rates lead to the following three traffic concepts:
– Traffic offered aoffered = λofferedh
– Traffic carried acarried = λcarriedh
– Traffic lost alost = λlosth
• Note:

aoffered = acarried + alost = a

acarried = a(1 − Bc )
alost = aBc
• Traffic offered and traffic lost are hypothetical quantities, but
traffic carried is measurable (key: Little’s formula):
– Traffic carried = the average number of occupied channels on the link
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1. Introduction

Teletraffic analysis

• System capacity
– n = number of channels on the link
• Traffic load
– a = (offered) traffic intensity
• Quality of service (from the subscribers’ point of view)
– Bc = probability that an arriving call finds all n channels occupied
• If we assume an M/G/n/n loss system, that is
– calls arrive according to a Poisson process (with rate λ)
– call holding times are independently and identically distributed according to
any distribution with mean h
• Then the quantitive relation between the three factors is given by the
Erlang’s blocking formula

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1. Introduction

Erlang’s blocking formula

an
Bc = Erl(n, a ) = n!
n i
å ai!
i =0
• Note: n!= n ⋅ ( n − 1) ⋅ K ⋅ 2 ⋅1
• Other names:
– Erlang’s formula
– Erlang’s B-formula
– Erlang’s loss formula
– Erlang’s first formula
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1. Introduction

Example

• Assume that there are n = 4 channels on a link and the offered traffic is
a = 2.0 erlang. Then the call blocking probability Bc is

24 16
2
Bc = Erl( 4 , 2 ) = 4! = 24 = ≈ 9 .5 %
1 + 2 + 22! + 23! + 24! 1 + 2 + 2 + 6 + 24 21
2 3 4 4 8 16

• If the link capacity is raised to n = 6 channels, then Bc reduces to

26
Bc = Erl( 6 , 2 ) = 6! ≈ 1 .2 %
22 23 24 25 26
1 + 2 + 2! + 3! + 4! + 5! + 6!

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1. Introduction

Required capacity vs. traffic

• Given the quality of service requirement that Bc < 20%,

the required capacity n depends on the traffic intensity a as follows:

n( a ) = min{ N = 1,2,K | Erl( N , a ) < 0.2}

50

40

30
capacity n
20

10

10 20 30 40 50
34
traffic a
 1. Introduction

Required quality of service vs. traffic

• Given the capacity n = 10 channels, the required

quality of service 1 − Bc depends on the traffic intensity a as follows:

1 − Bc (a) = 1 − Erl(10, a )
1

0.8

0.6
quality of service 1 − Bc
0.4

0.2

0
10 20 30 40 50
35
traffic a
 1. Introduction

Required quality of service vs. capacity

• Given the traffic intensity a = 10.0 erlang, the required

quality of service 1 − Bc depends on the capacity n as follows:

1 − Bc (n) = 1 − Erl(n,10.0)
1

0.8

0.6
quality of service 1 − Bc
0.4

0.2

0
10 20 30 40 50
36
capacity n
1. Introduction

Contents

• Purpose of the Teletraffic Theory

• Teletraffic models
• Classical model for telephone traffic
• Classical model for data traffic

37
1. Introduction

Classical model for data traffic

• Queueing models are suitable for describing (packet-switched) data

networks
– Pioneering work made by many people in 60’s and 70’s (ARPANET)
• Consider a link between two packet routers
– traffic consists of data packets transmitted on the link
• This can be modelled as a pure waiting system with
a single server (n = 1) and an infinite buffer (m = ∞)
– customer = packet
• λ = packet arrival rate λ µ
• L = average packet length (data units)
– server = link, waiting places = buffer
• R = link’s speed (data units per time unit)
– service time = packet transmission time
• 1/µ = L/R = average packet transmission time
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1. Introduction

Traffic process

state of packets in the system (waiting/being transmitted)

waiting
time
transmission
time
time
packet arrival times
number of packets in the system
4
3
2
1
0
time
link utilization
1

0
time

39
1. Introduction

Traffic load

• In packet-switched data networks:

Traffic ↔ Packets

• The amount of traffic is described by the traffic load ρ

• By definition, the traffic load ρ is
the quotient between the arrival rate λ and the service rate µ = R/L:
λ λL
ρ= =
µ R
• Note that the traffic load is a dimensionless quantity
– It can also be called the traffic intensity (as in loss systems)
– By Little’s formula, it tells the utilization factor of the server

40
1. Introduction

Example

• Consider a link between two packet routers. Assume that,

– on the average, 10 new packets arrive in a second,
– the mean packet length is 400 bytes, and
– the link speed is 64 kbps.
• It follows that the traffic load is

ρ = 10 ∗ 400 ∗ 8 / 64,000 = 0.5 = 50%

• If the link speed is increased to 150 Mbps, then the load is just

ρ = 10 ∗ 400 ∗ 8 / 150,000,000 = 0.0002 = 0.02%

• Note:
– 1 byte = 8 bits
– 1 kbps = 1 kbit/s = 1 kbit per second = 1,000 bits per second
– 1 Mbps = 1 Mbit/s = 1 Mbit per second = 1,000,000 bits per second
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1. Introduction

Teletraffic analysis

• System capacity
– R = link speed in kbps
• Traffic load
– λ = packet arrival rate in packet/s (considered here as a variable)
– L = average packet length in kbits (assumed here to be constant 1 kbit)
• Quality of service (from the users’ point of view)
– Pz = probability that a packet has to wait “too long”, that is longer than a
given reference value z (assumed here to be constant 0.1 s)
• If we assume an M/M/1 queueing system, that is
– packets arrive according to a Poisson process (with rate λ)
– packet lengths are independent and identically distributed according to
exponential distribution with mean L
• Then the quantitive relation between the three factors is given by the
following waiting time formula
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1. Introduction

Waiting time formula for an M/M/1 queue

 λL exp(−( R − λ ) z ), if λL < R ( ρ < 1)

Pz = Wait( R, λ ; L, z ) =  R L
î 1, if λL ≥ R ( ρ ≥ 1)

• Note:
– The system is stable only in the former case (ρ < 1)

43
1. Introduction

Example

• Assume that packets arrive at rate λ = 50 packet/s and the link speed
is R = 64 kbps. Then the probability Pz that an arriving packet has to
wait too long (i.e. longer than z = 0.1 s) is

Pz = Wait(64,50;1,0.1) = 50
64
exp(−1.4)) ≈ 19%

• Note that the system is stable, since

ρ = λRL = 50
64
<1

44
1. Introduction

Required link speed vs. arrival rate

• Given the quality of service requirement that Pz < 20%,

the required link speed R depends on the arrival rate λ as follows:

R (λ ) = min{r > λL | Wait( r , λ ;1,0.1) < 0.2}

70
60
50
40
link speed R
30
20
10
0
10 20 30 40 50
45
arrival rate λ
 1. Introduction

Required quality of service vs. arrival rate

• Given the link speed R = 50 kbps, the required

quality of service 1 − Pz depends on the arrival rate λ as follows:

1 − Pz (λ ) = 1 − Wait(50, λ ;1,0.1)
1

0.8

0.6
quality of service 1 − Pz
0.4

0.2

0
10 20 30 40 50
46
arrival rate λ
 1. Introduction

Required quality of service vs. link speed

• Given the arrival rate λ = 50 packet/s, the required

quality of service 1 − Pz depends on the link speed R as follows:

1 − Pz ( R) = 1 − Wait( R,50;1,0.1)
1

0.8

0.6
quality of service 1 − Pz
0.4

0.2

0
60 70 80 90 100
47
link speed R
1. Introduction

THE END

48