Busy-hour call attempts

Last updated

In telecommunications, busy-hour call attempts (BHCA) is a teletraffic engineering measurement used to evaluate and plan capacity for telephone networks. [1] BHCA is the number of telephone calls attempted at the sliding 60-minute period during which occurs the maximum total traffic load in a given 24-hour period (BHCA), and the higher the BHCA, the higher the stress on the network processors. BHCA is not to be confused with busy hour call completion (BHCC) which measures the throughput capacity of the network. If a bottleneck in the network exists with a capacity lower than the estimated BHCA, then congestion will occur resulting in many failed calls and customer dissatisfaction.

Contents

BHCA is usually used when planning telephone switching capacities and frequently goes side by side with the Erlang unit capacity calculation. As an example, a telephone exchange with a capacity of one million BHCA is estimated to handle 250,000 subscribers. The overall calculation is more complex however, and involves accounting for available circuits, desired blocking rates, and Erlang capacity allocated to each subscriber.

Determination

The busy hour is determined by fitting a horizontal line segment equivalent to one hour under the traffic load curve about the peak load point. If the service time interval is less than 60 minutes, the busy hour is the 60-minute interval that contains the service timer interval. In cases where more than one busy hour occurs in a 24-hour period, i.e., when saturation occurs, the busy hour or hours most applicable to the particular situation are used.

Related Research Articles

Agner Krarup Erlang Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer

Agner Krarup Erlang was a Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer, who invented the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory.

The erlang is a dimensionless unit that is used in telephony as a measure of offered load or carried load on service-providing elements such as telephone circuits or telephone switching equipment. A single cord circuit has the capacity to be used for 60 minutes in one hour. Full utilization of that capacity, 60 minutes of traffic, constitutes 1 erlang.

The People's Republic of China possesses a diversified communications system that links all parts of the country by Internet, telephone, telegraph, radio, and television. The country is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available, expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to foreign countries. Fiber to the x infrastructure has been expanded rapidly in recent years.

Telecommunications in the Philippines are well-developed due to the presence of modern infrastructure facilities. The industry was deregulated in 1995 when President Fidel Ramos signed Republic Act 7925. This law opened the sector to more private players and improved the provision of telecom services are better and fairer rates. The industry was deregulated in 1995, leading to the creation of many telecommunication service providers for mobile, fixed-line, Internet and other services.

In telecommunication, a call-second is a unit used to measure communications traffic density, equivalent to one call with a duration of one second.

In telecommunication engineering, and in particular teletraffic engineering, the quality of voice service is specified by two measures: the grade of service (GoS) and the quality of service (QoS).

The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's circuit-switched telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators, providing infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. The PSTN consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all interconnected by switching centers, thus allowing most telephones to communicate with each other. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital in its core network and includes mobile and other networks, as well as fixed telephones.

An access network is a type of telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their immediate service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to one another. The access network may be further divided between feeder plant or distribution network, and drop plant or edge network.

GSM services are a standard collection of applications and features available over the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) to mobile phone subscribers all over the world. The GSM standards are defined by the 3GPP collaboration and implemented in hardware and software by equipment manufacturers and mobile phone operators. The common standard makes it possible to use the same phones with different companies' services, or even roam into different countries. GSM is the world's most dominant mobile phone standard.

Telecommunications traffic engineering, teletraffic engineering, or traffic engineering is the application of traffic engineering theory to telecommunications. Teletraffic engineers use their knowledge of statistics including queuing theory, the nature of traffic, their practical models, their measurements and simulations to make predictions and to plan telecommunication networks such as a telephone network or the Internet. These tools and knowledge help provide reliable service at lower cost.

Quality of service (QoS) mechanism controls the performance, reliability and usability of a telecommunications service. Mobile cellular service providers may offer mobile QoS to customers just as the fixed line PSTN services providers and Internet service providers may offer QoS. QoS mechanisms are always provided for circuit switched services, and are essential for non-elastic services, for example streaming multimedia. It is also essential in networks dominated by such services, which is the case in today's mobile communication networks, but not necessarily tomorrow.

Network planning and design is an iterative process, encompassing topological design, network-synthesis, and network-realization, and is aimed at ensuring that a new telecommunications network or service meets the needs of the subscriber and operator. The process can be tailored according to each new network or service.

Traffic mix is a traffic model in telecommunication engineering and teletraffic theory.

The Elektronisches Wählsystem Digital (EWSD), translated to Electronic Digital Switching System in English, is a widely installed German telephone exchange system, originally introduced in 1975 by Siemens AG, but discontinued in 2017.

MPT 1327 is an industry standard for trunked radio communications networks.

Overselling or overbooking is sale of a volatile good or service in excess of actual supply. Overselling is a common practice in the travel and hospitality sectors, in which it is expected that some people will cancel. The practice occurs as an intentional business strategy where sellers expect that some buyers will not consume all of the resources they are entitled to, or that some buyers will cancel. The practice of overselling aims to ensure that 100% of available supply will be used resulting in the maximum return on investment. However, if most customers do wish to purchase or use the sold commodity, it may leave some customers lacking a service they expected to receive.

TXE

TXE, was a family of telephone exchanges developed by the British General Post Office (GPO), designed to replace the ageing Strowger systems.

Burstable billing is a method of measuring bandwidth based on peak use. It also allows usage to exceed a specified threshold for brief periods of time without the financial penalty of purchasing a higher committed information rate from an Internet service provider (ISP).

Design of robust and reliable networks and network services relies on an understanding of the traffic characteristics of the network. Throughout history, different models of network traffic have been developed and used for evaluating existing and proposed networks and services.

National Network Management Centre

The National Network Management Centre is the main national network operations centre of BT Group, situated in Shropshire.

References

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates  public domain material from the General Services Administration document: "Federal Standard 1037C".(in support of MIL-STD-188)

See also