UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY TAXILA

Department of Telecommunication Engineering

Transmission and Switching Systems

TE 404 Semester VIII

Experiment No 10: Study of traffic capacity of the system and implication of traffic level on
system

Objective: To investigate the traffic capacity of the system. Understand the means of measuring
traffic and implication of the traffic level on system design.

Equipment/Tools: Tecknikit Digital Switching System

Name of student: _________________________________________________________

Group: _________________________________________________________________

Date of Experiment: ______________________________________________________

Report submitted on: _____________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Marks obtained: _________________

Remarks: ______________________
Instructor’s Signature: __________
 TELEPHONE TRAFFIC

OBJECTIVE

 To investigate the traffic capacity of the system.

 To evaluate methods of collecting traffic data.
 Understand the means of measuring traffic.
 Understand the implication of the traffic level on system design.
THEORY

Telephone Traffic

Telephone traffic is a measure of how much use is made of a particular telephone system, or even
part of a system. The object of the analysis of traffic is to determine how much equipment is
required to provide service for all users, without wasting resources on overprovision.

Traffic Calculations
A basic characteristic of telephone traffic is its random nature. There are 2 quantities used to
describe the nature of this traffic, both of them being random variables. Requests for calls arrive
at random intervals. Over a long period, this produces an average arrival rate R calls per second.
Also, each call has a holding time (duration of call), which also varies randomly. The average
holding time is h seconds. The Amount of traffic carried in a period of time is the sum of the
holding times for all the calls in the period. This is shown as Connected Time for each Line in
this Assignment.
A more general expression for traffic is traffic intensity A or traffic flow. The Intensity is the
Connected Time divided by the period of time in which it was determined. Traffic Intensity is
therefore the average traffic. Traffic has no dimensions, but usually has the unit of Erlang, named
after a Danish mathematician. Alternatively, it is expressed as hundred (century) centum call
seconds per hour (CCS). 1 Erlang = 36 CCS, since there are 3600 seconds per hour.
The maximum capacity of one telephone channel is 1 Erlang assuming it is in constant use.
Telephone Traffic intensity is A = Rxh/T (Erlang)
Traffic Measurements
The Assignment provides an introduction to the concepts of traffic analysis. However, it is subject
to some limitations:
 With only 4 telephones, the maximum number of connections is 2, and therefore with the
ample capacity of the digital switch there is no possibility of blocking, i.e. no call requests
will be refused because of lack of capacity.
 With any typical educational use, the telephones will be used to illustrate aspects of the
control system, not to make normal calls. Hence the pattern of usage will not be typical.
For example, the amount of set up time may be much larger than for normal use.
 The sample size is too small to be statistically significant

System Traffic

Telephone Traffic
This is the use made of the telephone system. This Assignment shows how data is collected and
calculated for establishing the traffic levels. The Practical uses the data accumulated by the Work
board since it was last started. The display shows the relevant data for each Line, and where
appropriate the total values for the system.

Set Up Time
The number of Call Attempts and the total time used for setting up calls are displayed. These are
important data for the design of a telephone system, as it shows how much equipment is required
Call Set Up.

Traffic Intensity
This is the most widely used parameter for traffic, with the symbol A. It is the total usage of the
system the Connected Time during a particular period of time, divided by that period.
A = Connected Time / Total Time.
Traffic Intensity has no dimensions but is given the unit of Erlang.
The display shows the Connected Time for each Line. The Connected Time for the whole System
is the sum of the Connected Times for each Line. From these is derived the Traffic Intensity for
each Line and for the System.
Telephone Traffic
Finally, the maximum number of connections achieved at one time is shown. This cannot be large
in this system but is a very important parameter for design of large systems. The data used for the
traffic statistics in this system is collected each time a Practical is run and is not lost until the
system is switched off. However, if it is desired, the data can be cleared to start again using the
Reset Data button.
PROCEDURE
The table shows the data used to calculate the traffic values for the system and the Traffic Intensity
in Erlangs. The data has been collected over the period of use of the Work board.
Make a connection between any two telephones.
 Observe the change in Set Up Time for the calling line when the call is answered.
 Observe the change in Connected Time and Traffic Intensity when the call is released.

QUESTIONS:
1 What is the maximum possible Traffic Intensity in Erlangs for this system?

2 If a Line has a Connected Time of 24 minutes in a measurement period of 1 hour, what is

the Traffic Intensity for the Line?

3 If the 4 lines of the system have Traffic Intensities of 0.3, 0.25, 0.05 and 0.6 Erlang, what
is the total Traffic Intensity for the system?