Chapter 6 Overflow theory In this chapter we consider systems with limited accessibility where traffic blocked from a primary group of channels overflows to secondary groups. In literature the term availability is often used for accessibility, but we will use the term availability in a more general meaning including reliability aspects and coverage in mobil communication. Both carried traffic and overflow traffic have properties different from pure chance traffic (PCT), and therefore we wnnot use the classical traffic models for these streams. In Sec. 6.1 we describe a typical problem from telecommunication networks, where we use limited accessibility both for service protection and for equipment savings. The exact solution by state probabilities is dealt with in Se. 6.2. This approacl only possible for very small systems because of the state space explosion. Only for Erlang’s ideal grading are we able obtain exact solutions for any parameter values. For real systems we have to use approximate solutions or computer simulations. Approxima- tions are cither based on state space (Sec. 6.3 ~ Sec. 6.6) or time space (Sec. 6.7). In Sec. 6.3 we describe the carried traffic and the lost traffic by mean value and variance (or peakedness) of state probabilities. Then we assume that two traffic streams which have same mean and variance are equivalent, thereby looking away from moments of order higher than two. For a given mean and variance of overflow traffic we are able to find an Erlang loss system (defined by offered traffic and number of channels) which has the same mean and variance. This is exploited in the ERT-method (Sec. 6.4) which is the method most used in practice. Fredericks & Hayward’s method (Sec. 6.5) is applicable for both smooth and bursty traffic, and easy to apply. It uses a simple transformation of the the parameters of Erlang’s loss model, and is based on an optimal splitting of the traffic process. Other state-based methods are described in Sec. 6.6. In particular, the method based on the BPP (Binomial Poisson Pascal) modeling paradigm, using traffic congestion, is of interest Methods based on time space are in general more complex. State space based methods based on Erlang’s loss model only allows for two parameters (mean and variance). Mothods based on time space allows for any number of parameters. In Sec. 6.7 we describe the162 CHAPTER 6. OVERFLOW THEORY application of interrupted Poisson processes and Cox-2 distributions. They both have three parameters. Using general Cox distributions or Markov modulated Poisson processes MMPP more parameters are available. 6.1 Limited accessibility In this section we consider systems with limited (restricted) accessibility, ic. systems where a subscriber or a traffic flow only has ess to k specific channels out of a total of n (k < n). If all k channels are busy, then a call attempt is blocked even if there are idle channels among the remaining (n—k) channels. An example is shown in Fig. 6.1, where we consider a hierarchical network with traffic from A to B, and from A to C. From A to B there is a direct (primary) route with n channels. If these channels all are busy, then the call is directed to the alternative (secondary) route via T (transit) to B. In a similar way, the traffic from A to C has a first-choice route AC and an alternative route ATC. If we assume the routes TB and TC are without blocking, then we get the accessibility scheme shown to the right in Fig. 6.1. From this we notice that the total number of channels is (rm; +n» +12) and that the traffic AB only has access to (nm; + m2) of these. In this case sequential hunting among the routes should be applied so that a call is routed via the group nia, only when all m, primary channels are busy \ Me M2 “OC Figure 6.1: Telecommunication network with alternate routing and the corresponding acces- sibility sche which is called an O'Dell-grading. We assume the links between the transit exchange T and the exchanges B and C are without blocking. The ni2 channels are common for both traffic streams. It is typical for a hierarchical network that a certain service protection is inherent. Indepen- dent of how high the traffic from A to Cis, then it will never get access to the m channels. On the other hand, we may block calls even if there are idle channels, and therefore the uti- lization will always be lower than for systems with full accessibility. However, the utilization62. EXACT CALCULATION BY STATE PROBABILITIES 163 will be bigger than for two separate systems with the same total number of channels. The common channels allows for a certain blocking equalization between the groups. Historically, it was necessary to consider restricted accessibility because the electro-mecha- nical systems had very limited intelligence and limited selector capacity (accessibility). In digital systems we do not have these restrictions, but still the theory of restricted accessibility is important, both in network planning and in guaranteeing a certain grade-of-service. Figure 6.2: State transition diagram for a small O'Dell grading (Fig. 6.1) with n = 3 channels, ny = m2 = mz = 1 (accessibility k = 2), ordered hunting, and offered traffic A = X, equally distributed between the two groups (mean service time = time unit). The detailed state transition diagram has 8 states. We specify the state of cach channel. The state probabilities can only be obtained by setting up all 8 balance equations (7 node equations and a normalization condition) and solve these lincar equations. 6.2 Exact calculation by state probabilities ‘The problem of evaluating systems with limited accessibility is due to the state space explo- sion, The number of states is in general so large that problems become intractable. 6.2.1 Balance equations To have full information about the state of the system it is not sufficient to know how many channels are busy, we should also know which group a busy channel belongs to. Thus for the system in Fig. 6.1 the number of states will be (n1 + 1))(nz + 1)(miz + 1). In worst case