CN 321
TELETRAFFIC ENGINEERING
5/16/2 Slide No. 1
023
Contents
▪ Introduction to Network performance
▪ Network Performance measures
▪ Tele-traffic tools for performance analysis
Teletraffic Engineering : CN 321 5/16/2023 Slide # 2
Presentation outline
▪ Overview of Tele-traffic Theory
▪ Telecommunication Network
▪ Switching Modes
▪ Traffic Point of View
▪ Tele-Traffic Models
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Tele-traffic Theory
▪ The term Tele-traffic covers all kinds of data
communication traffic and telecommunication
traffic.
▪ Teletraffic theory is defined as the application of
probability theory to the solution of problems
concerning planning, performance evaluation,
operation and maintenance of telecommunication
systems
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Tele-traffic Theory cont..
The objective of Tele-traffic theory can be formulated
as follows:
▪ To make the traffic measurable in well defined units
through mathematical models and to derive the
relationship between grade-of-service and system
capacity in such a way that the theory becomes a
tool by which investments can be planned.
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Why Teletraffic theory?
Teletraffic theory is attractive for:
Service providers:
▪ how to best distribute service access points to
facilitate the users' requests?
▪ how many servers are needed to satisfy users'
request?
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Why Teletraffic theory? Cont..
Networks operators:
▪ How to best distribute network load?
• How much buffer space should be assigned to
traffic load?
• what are the optimal link rates?
vendors:
• how to best utilize resources of the
switching/routing equipment?
• what kind of improvements should be made to
switching equipment?
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Why Teletraffic theory? Cont..
end users
• What is actual quality of service obtained from the
network?
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Traffic Point of View
Telecommunication system from the traffic point
of view:
Ideas:
▪ The system serves the incoming traffic
▪ The traffic is generated by the users of the system
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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?
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General Purpose
Determine relationships between the following
three factors:
▪ Quality of service
▪ Traffic load
▪ System capacity
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General Purpose Description
Quality of service can be described from the point of
view of
▪ The customer (e.g. call blocking, packet loss,
packet delay, or throughput).
▪ The system, in which case we use the term
performance (e.g. processor or link utilization, or
maximum network load).
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General Purpose Description Cont..
Traffic consists of
▪ Bits, packets, bursts, flows, connections, calls, …
Depending on the system and time
scale considered
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General Purpose Description Cont..
System can be:
▪ a single device (e.g. link between two telephone
exchanges, link in an IP network, packet processor
in a data network, router’s transmission buffer, or
statistical multiplexer in an ATM network)
▪ The whole network (e.g. telephone or data
network) or some part of it.
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Example
Telephone call
Traffic = telephone calls by everybody
System = telephone network
Quality of service = probability that the phone rings at
the destination
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Relationship between three factors
Qualitatively, the relationships are as follows:
To describe the relationships quantitatively,
mathematical models are needed
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Teletraffic Models
▪ Teletraffic models are stochastic
▪ Teletraffic theory analyses QoS using probability
theory since the demand of telephone and data
calls has stochastic characteristics.
▪ Systems themselves are usually deterministic but
traffic is typically stochastic
“you never know, who calls you and when”
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Teletraffic Models Cont..
It follows that the variables in these models are
random variables, e.g.
▪ Number of ongoing calls
▪ number of packets in a buffer
▪ Average connection duration
▪ Busy time
▪ Service time
▪ Call arrival
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Teletraffic Models Cont..
▪ 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
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Teletraffic Models Cont..
▪ Stochastic process describes the temporal
development of a random variable
▪ 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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Practical Goals
▪ Network planning
✓ Dimensioning
✓ Optimization
✓ Performance analysis
▪ Network management and control
✓ Efficient operating
✓ Fault recovery
✓ Traffic management
✓ Routing
✓ Accounting
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Modelling
▪ Modelling is the process of identifying and
abstracting the relevant entities and relationship
from the system under study
▪ General requirements to a model are:
✓ It must without major difficulty be possible to verify
the model and it must be possible to determine the
model parameters from observed data.
✓ It must be feasible to apply the model for practical
dimensioning.
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Modelling of Telecommunication Systems
▪ For the analysis of a telecommunication system, a
model must be set up to describe the whole (or
parts of) the system.
▪ This modelling requires knowledge of both the
technical system as well as the mathematical tools
and the implementation of the model on a
computer.
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Modelling of Telecommunication Systems Cont..
Such a model contains three main elements:
▪ The system structure,
▪ The operational strategy, and
▪ The statistical properties of the traffic
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System Structure
▪ This part is technically determined and it is in
principle possible to obtain any level of details in the
description e.g. at component level.
▪ The system structure is given by the physical or
logical system which is described in manuals in
every detail.
▪ In telecommunication traffic, transmission systems,
signals, etc. make up the structure
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The Operational Strategy
▪ Ways in order to adapt the traffic system to the
demand.
▪ In teletraffic, it is implemented with traffic theories
and strategies which might be different for the
morning and the evening traffic.
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The Operational Strategy
▪ In a telecommunication system, strategies are
applied in order to give priority to call attempts and
in order to route the traffic to the destination.
▪ The classical telephone systems used wired logic
in order to introduce strategies while in modern
systems it is done by software, enabling more
flexible and adaptive strategies.
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Statistical properties of traffic
▪ User demands are modelled by statistical
properties of the traffic.
▪ Only by measurements on real systems it is
possible to validate that the theoretical modeling is
in agreement with reality.
▪ A mathematical model is build up from a thorough
knowledge of the traffic.
▪ Properties are then derived from the model and
compared to measured data.
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Statistical properties of traffic
Models also exists for describing the behavior of users
(subscribers) experiencing blocking, i.e. they are
refused service and may make a new call attempt a
little later (repeated call attempts).
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Mathematical model
ON r Poisson
Traffic
Characteristics
a b are modeled
OFF
Topology, Structure Strategy
Hardware Software Priorities?
capacity
Scheduling
Wireless, wired
Admission Control
Transfer mode
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Simple Teletraffic model
▪ Customers arrive at rate (customers per time
unit)
– 1/ = 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
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Simple Teletraffic model Cont..
▪ There are n + m customer places in the system
at least n service places and at most m
waiting places.
▪ It is assumed that blocked customers (arriving in a
fully system) are lost.
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Pure loss system
▪ Finite number of servers (n < ∞), n service places,
no waiting places (m = 0).
▪ If the system is full (with all n servers occupied)
when a customer arrives, it is not served at all but
lost.
▪ Some customers may be lost.
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Pure loss system Cont..
From the customer’s point of view, it is interesting to
know e.g.
▪ What is the probability that the system is full when
it arrives?
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Infinite system
▪ Infinite number of servers (n = ∞), no waiting
places (m = 0)
▪ No customers are lost or even have to wait before
getting served
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Pure queueing system
▪ Finite number of servers (n < ∞ ), n service places,
infinite number of waiting places (m = ∞ ).
▪ If all n servers are occupied when a customer
arrives, it occupies one of the waiting places.
▪ No customers are lost but some of them have to
wait before getting served.
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Pure queueing system Cont..
▪ From the customer’s point of view, it is interesting
to know e.g.
▪ what is the probability that it has to wait “too long”?
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Lossy queueing system
▪ Finite number of servers (n <∞ ), n service places,
finite number of waiting places (0 < m < ∞)
▪ If all n servers are occupied but there are free
waiting places when a customer arrives, it
occupies one of the waiting places
▪ If all n servers and all m waiting places are
occupied when a customer arrives, it is not served
at all but lost
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Lossy queueing system Cont..
Some customers are lost and some customers have
to wait before getting served.
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Pure sharing system
▪ Finite number of servers (n < ∞), infinite number of
service places (n + m = ∞ ), no waiting places
▪ If there are at most n customers in the system (x ≤
n), each customer has its own server. Otherwise (x
> n), the total service rate (nμ) is shared fairly
among all customers.
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Pure sharing system Cont..
▪ Thus, the rate at which a customer is served
equals min{μ, nμ/x}, No customers are lost, and no
one needs to wait before the service.
▪ But the delay is greater, the more there are
customers in the system. Thus, delay is an
interesting measure from the customer’s point of
view.
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Lossy sharing system
▪ Finite number of servers (n < ∞ ), finite number
of service places (n + m < ∞ ), no waiting places
▪ If there are at most n customers in the system (x
≤ n), each customer has its own server.
Otherwise (x > n), the total service rate (nμ) is
shared fairly among all customers
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Lossy sharing system Cont..
▪ Thus, the rate at which a customer is served
equals min{μ, nμ/x}
▪ Some customers are lost, but no one needs to wait
before the service.
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