CSE4255

Cellular Network
Lecture 7:
Trunking and Grade of Service

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Why Trunking?
 Main Problems in Subscriber Service:
▪ Limited number of channels
▪ Many Users
 Purpose of trunking theory is
▪ To determine the required capacity and allocate
the proper number of channel in order to meet
GOS.
 GOS:
▪ Grade of service is the measure of user’s ability
to access a trunked system during busiest hour.
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Trunking
 Trunking theory was represented by Erlang in
late 19th century.
 Trunking is the concept that allows a large no of
users to share a relatively small number of
channels in a cell.
 In a trunked radio system (TRS) –
▪ Each user is allocated a channel on a per call
basis from a pool of available channels.
▪ Upon termination of the call, the previously
occupied channel is immediately returned to the
pool of available channels. 3
Common terms in Trunking
 Setup Time: Time required to allocate a radio channel to
a requesting user.
 Blocked Call: Call which cannot be completed at the
time of request, due to congestion(lost call)
 Holding Time: Average duration of a typical call.
Denoted by H(in seconds)
 Request Rate: The average number of calls requests per
unit time( λ)
 Traffic Intensity: Measure of channel time utilization or
the average channel occupancy measured in Erlangs.
Dimensionless quantity. Denoted by A
 Load: Traffic intensity across the entire TRS (Erlangs)
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 Traffic Intensity
➢ Traffic intensity generated by each user : Au Erlangs
Au = H
H : average duration of the call
 : average number of call requests per unit time

➢ For a system containing U users and unspecified number of channels,

➢ In C channel trunked system, if the traffic is equally distributed among the

Ac = U Au/ C
Erlang--a Unit of Traffic
 An Erlang is a unit of telecommunications traffic
measurement:
 Represents the continuous use of one voice path.
 Describe the total traffic volume of one hour
 A channel kept busy for one hour is defined as
having a load of one Erlang
 For example, a radio channel that is occupied for
thirty minutes during an hour carries 0.5 Erlangs of
traffic
 For 1 channel
 Min load=0 Erlang (0% time utilization)
 Max load=1 Erlang (100% time utilization) 6
Erlang--Example
 If a group of 100 users made 30 calls in one hour,
and each call had an average call duration (holding
time) of 5 minutes, then the number of Erlangs is
worked out as follows:
 Minutes of traffic in the hour = number of calls
x duration
 Minutes of traffic in the hour = 30 x 5 = 150
 Hours of traffic in the hour = 150 / 60 = 2.5
 Traffic Intensity= 2.5 Erlangs

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Traffic Intensity: Example

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Traffic Intensity: Example

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Traffic Intensity: Example

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Grade of Service
 The grade of service (GOS) is related to the ability of a
mobile phone to access the trunked mobile phone
system during the busiest hour.
 To meet a specific GOS, the maximum required capacity
of the system must be estimated and the proper number
of channels must be allocated for the system
 GOS is a measure of the congestion of the system which
is specified as
 The probability of a call being blocked: Blocked calls cleared
(BCC) or Lost Call Cleared (LCC) or Erlang B systems or
 The probability of a call being delayed beyond a certain amount
of time before being granted access: Blocked call delayed or
Lost Call Delayed (LCD) or Erlang C systems
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Blocked Call Cleared (BCC) Systems
 When a user requests service, there is a minimal
call set-up time and the user is given immediate
access to a channel if one is available
 If channels are already in use and no new
channels are available, call is blocked without
access to the system
 The user does not receive service, but is free to
try again later
 All blocked calls are instantly returned to the user
pool
 Mathematical modeling of such systems is done
by Erlang B formula
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 Modeling of BCC Systems
 Erlang B formula: determines the probability that the call
is blocked, and is the measure of the GOS for a trunked
system that provides no queuing for blocked calls.

 Where:
C = number of trunked channels offered by a trunked radio system
A = Total offered traffic.

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Erlang B

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Erlang B Trunking GOS

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BCC System Example-1
 How many users can be supported for 0.5%
blocking probability for the following number
of trunked channels in a BCC system? (a) 5, (b)
10,(c)=20. Assumed that each user generates
0.1 Erlangs of traffic.
 Solution:
 Given C=5, GOS=0.005, Au=0.1,
 From graph/Table using C=5 and
GOS=0.005,A=1.13
 Total Number of users U=A/Au=1.13/0.1=11
users 16
BCC System Example-2
 Assuming that each user in a system generates a traffic intensity of 0.2
Erlangs, how many users can be supported for 0.1% probability of blocking
in an Erlang B system for a number of trunked channels equal to 60.
 Solution :
System is an Erlang B
Au = 0.2 Erlangs
Pr [Blocking] = 0.001
C = 60 Channels
From the Erlang B figure, we see that
A ≈ 40 Erlangs
Therefore U=A/Au=40/0.02=2000users.

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Blocked Call Delayed(BCD) Systems
 Queues are used to hold call requests that are
initially blocked
 When a user attempts a call and a channel is not
immediately available, the call request may be
delayed until a channel becomes available
 Mathematical modeling of such systems is done by
Erlang C formula
 Erlang C formula which gives likelihood of a call
not having immediate access to a channel (all
channels are already in use):

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Modeling of BCD Systems
 Probability that any caller is delayed in queue for a wait time
greater than t seconds is given as GOS of a BCD System
 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
Pr[delay>t] = Pr [delay>0] Pr [delay>t| delay>0]
 Where P[delay>t| delay>0]= e(-(C-A)t/H)
Pr[delay>t] = Pr [delay>0] e(-(C-A)t/H)
 where C = total number of channels, t =delay time of interest,
H=average duration of call
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Erlang C

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 Trunking Efficiency
 Trunking efficiency is a measure of the number of users which can
be offered a particular GOS with a particular configuration of fixed
channels.
 The way in which channels are grouped can substantially alter the
number of users handled by a trunked system.
 Example:
 10 trunked channels at a GOS of 0.01 can support 4.46 Erlangs,
where as two groups of 5 trunked channels can support
2x1.36=2.72 Erlangs of traffic
 10 trunked channels can offer 60% more traffic at a specific
GOS than two 5 channel trunks.
 Therefore, if in a certain situation we sub-divide the total
channels in a cell into smaller channel groups then the total
carried traffic will reduce with increasing number of groups

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Problem 1
An urban area has a population of two million residents. Three competing
trunked mobile networks (systems A, B, and C) provide cellular service in this
area. System A has 394 cells with 19 channels each, system B has 98 cells
with 57 channels each, and system C has 49 cells, each with 100 channels.
Find the number of users that can be supported at 2% blocking if each user
averages two calls per hour at an average call duration of three minutes.
Assuming that all three trunked systems are operated at maximum capacity,
compute the percentage market penetration of each cellular provider..

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Problem 2
A certain city has an area of 1,300 square miles and is covered by a cellular
system using a seven-cell reuse pattern. Each cell has a radius of four miles
and the city is allocated 40 MHz of spectrum with a full duplex channel
bandwidth of 60 kHz. Assume a GOS of 2% for an Erlang B system is
specified. If the offered traffic per user is 0.03 Erlangs, compute (a) the
number of cells in the service area, (b) the number of channels per cell, (c)
traffic intensity of each cell, (d) the maximum carried traffic, (e) the total
number of users that can be served for 2% GOS, (f) the number of mobiles per
unique channel (where it is understood that channels are reused), and (g) the
theoretical maximum number of users that could be served at one time by the
system.

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Problem 3
A hexagonal cell within a four-cell system has a radius of 1.387 km. A total
of 60 channels are used within the entire system. If the load per user is
0.029 Erlangs, and λ = 1 call/hour, compute the following for an Erlang C
system that has a 5% probability of a delayed call:
(a) How many users per square kilometer will this system support?
(b) What is the probability that a delayed call will have to wait for
more than 10 s?
(c) What is the probability that a call will be delayed for more than 10
seconds?

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Problem 4
a. Consider a 7-cell system covering an area of 3100 km2. The traffic in
the seven cells is as follows:
Cell number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Traffic (Erlangs) 30.8 66.7 48.6 33.2 38.2 37.8 32.6
Each user generates an average of 0.03 Erlangs of traffic per hour, with a
mean holding time of 120 s. The system consists of a total of 395 channels
and is designed for a grade of service of 0.01.
a. Determine the number of subscribers in each cell.
b. Determine the number of calls per hour per subscriber.
c. Determine the number of calls per hour in each cell.
d. Determine the number of channels required in each cell. Hint: You will
need to extrapolate using Table 10.3.
e. Determine the total number of subscribers.
f. Determine the average number of subscribers per channel.
g. Determine the subscriber density per km2•
h. Determine the total traffic (total Erlangs).
i. Determine the Erlangs per km2.
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j. What is the radius of a cell?