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TRAFFIC MODELING FOR CAPACITY ANALYSIS OF GSM NETWORKS IN NIGERIA Biebuma J.J.,Orakwe S.I and Igbekele O.J
TRAFFIC MODELING FOR CAPACITY ANALYSIS OF GSM NETWORKS IN NIGERIA Biebuma J.J.,Orakwe S.I and Igbekele O.J
ABSTRACT
A precise analysis of mobile users behaviour in terms of mobility and traffic would help to optimize
capacity for both circuit and packet switched services. This research work employs the multiplicity of
techniques for the capacity analysis of GSM network in Nigeria. Enhanced stochastic knapsack was
evaluated for resource sharing approach in multi-services. Erlang Loss Model was adopted for SMS
capacity analysis. The offered traffic that is Lost Traffic based was used to dimension the system
resources. This was made possible by the characterization of a typical representation of the Northern
part of Nigeria. Finally different frequency hopping types were compared, and the novel power based
variant DFH was considered for improved spectral efficiency.
INTRODUCTION
In spite of large amount of studies about GSM capacity analysis appeared last half decades, a number of issues
remain open. The one of the most important issues among them is anticipating the traffic intensity for proper
dimensioning of the network, especially for multiservices. Traffic modeling is the critical part of networks
modeling, it is the key point on performance evaluation for any communication network. Traffic Model can be
grouped into two series, namely, smooth and non smooth model. Smooth traffic model can be divided into two
kinds: Short Range Dependence (SRD) and Long Range Dependence (LRD), (Riedi et al, 1997). Construction
of a traffic model is the trade off of the following factors: Fitting nature, number of describing parameters and
complexity of the parameter evaluation (Gabriel et al, 2004). The advent of Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM) has renewed the interest in resource-sharing models with different resources requirements. Due to the
non homogeneity of the traffic and the difficulty of its characterization, trunk reservation is used for resource
contro (Altman et al, 2001). This work studies such a resource control to derive a traffic model to calculate the
number of resources that are required to handle peaks of traffic in the cell while meeting the grade of service
requirements.
In classical GSM network dimensioning, when there was only one service with an associated blocking rate,
Erlang-B Law was a suitable traffic model. Erlang B traffic models have been developed for wire line networks.
They predict the aggregate traffic processed by the switches. Unlike a fixed network, a cellular telephone
network must support moving customers (Leung et al, 2004). Present GSM network provides mixed services ,
besides typical voice services, data services and multimedia services are in all kinds. For this reason, Erlang-B
Law is no longer suited to traffic modelling in GSM network (Peter, 2009). Enhanced Knapsack is a more
suitable multi-service traffic model, finding the system minimal capacity given the requested GoS, reproducing
the sharing of resources between different users and different services.
In most of the past techniques, it is assumed that the mobile network is homogeneous, the cells in the network
are studied one by one with stochastic models therefore simulation is used as the main modeling tool. In recent
years, a number of analytical frameworks were developed to obtain more general results and they are much
more useful than simulation studies this is because analytic results evaluate network performance under a wide
range of conditions (Hong et al, 2006).
Firstly, this work examines source, volume and type of data generation by analytical method, then investigates
the kind of channel allocation with respect to the frequency hopping types and proposes the best spectral
efficiency. Further GoS parameters in the multiservice GSM network are investigated for fairer source
allocation in the traffic mix environment.
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signaling (or paging) may still be accessible by all mobile hosts in a congested cell (Kuboye, 2006). The
peculiarity in belief, culture, environment, economy, expertise, research and development centre, even the
technology itself, and many other factors have also greatly influenced the failure of good cellular service in
Nigeria.
The performance of GSM communication systems depends significantly on the mobile radio channel.
Propagation models predict the average signal strength and its variability at a given distance from the
transmitter. Different models exist for different types of environments (e.g., urban and rural) (Shenghui et al,
2007). This is the reason for management of calls blocking between the subscribers due to limited available
radio resources, thus increasing the spectral efficiency of GSM cellular system has become a great concern to
the GSM Network operators, particularly in Nigeria. The need to tackle the problem of congestion on the GSM
network is for the benefit of the operators and users as well as the vendor. This thesis is motivated by this need;
the present research offers solution to the above problem. Since Nigeria does not have a technology of her own,
all we need do is to adapt the adopted technology into our environment, and by adaptation, you have to be
analytical in your approach of data generation and processing, rather than being stochastic.
Our modelling approach is based on the analysis of the OMCR captured real traffic data and using the RNP opt-
net software as a statistical tool to characterize the arrival processes and derive distributions to fit the measured
data. Opt-net software uses the statistical method of Kolmo-gorov Smirnov (K-S) goodness of fit test, using
maximum likelihood estimation to calculate parameters of the fitted distributions (Alcatel, 2007). We monitor
the BSS measurements over the radio network servers in order to propose a mobility model that constitutes a
systematic way to evaluate the radio performance and customer behaviour in the network. This study is divided
into two groups according to the population mobility and traffic characteristics. The graphical outputs of call
blocking probability are produced useful for capacity analysis and estimation. The output Erlang is treated as
carried load and adapted into the lost and overflow traffic to obtain the offered traffic required for appropriate
cell dimensioning.
MEASUREMENTS
This research work started by capturing the traffic volume in 6 Northern states: Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe,
Bauchi, Yobe and Borno. The BSS captures of 3 BSCs per state were used. The traffic intensity in these
locations were taken over 24h for 48 weeks, stratified to work days and weekends. The mean hours of the traffic
in Erlangs was recorded and plotted. The traffic load, was taken as the carried traffic. Also, the average rate of
blocked calls against the generated Erlangs was used to find the Lost Traffic, to enable us formulate the Offered
Traffic for accurate cell dimensioning, so as to allow our novel model optimize effectively the resources
allotted. The covered areas were now delineated over Yola and Numan which were representatives since they
included all the characteristics of a typical Nigeria, as in urban and rural for commercial, residential and
highways. This data was carefully plotted on the graphs, as shown in the figs of the measurements below:
Fig.1: Traffic intensity versus the hour of the day ( Yola) Fig.2: Traffic intensity versus the hour of the day ( Numan)
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Fig.3: Average rate of blocked calls over the hour Fig.4: New arrival calls over handover calls
of the day
Figure 5: Illustrates the relationship between BP Figure 6: Illustrates the relationship between blocking
with load in (Erl) probability and users
Figure 7: illustrates the relationship Fig. 8 illustrates the relationship between the
between the spectral efficiency in (bit/s/Hz) spectral efficiency(bit/sec/Hz) and radius (m)
with load
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Consider a GSM call with 7 channels and assuming that five out of the seven channels are busy. If a customer
that requires one channel arrives, it will not be blocked, but if a new arrival, that requires three channels, will be
blocked. Therefore, customer that requires more channels will experience a higher blocking probability.
Model Description
Consider a set of K channels, serving customer belong to I class. Customer from class I require simultaneous S
channels and their holding times are assumed exponentially distributed with mean . Class customer
arrival arrives according to an independent Poisson process with arrival rate . The holding times are
independent of each other, of the arrival processes and of the state of the system.
An admitted class- customer will use S channel for the duration of its mean holding time, , after all
which S channel are released to serve others. When a class- customer arrives and cannot find S free channel,
it is blocked and cleared from the system. The probability that an arriving class- customer is blocked is denoted
by B( ).
Model Derivation
To develop a multiservice Traffic model for an enhanced Knapsack of capacity C, the steady state probability of
process is used to satisfy the conditional probability of occurrence of state in Stochastic Knapsack.
Now, consider a set of K channels serving customers belong to I classes with traffic intensity each using
resources and a knapsack of Capacity C. Letting j = ( ,……… ) represent the possible states of the Knapsack,
also consider the steady-state probability distribution of for the case K=∞
Let = Independent uni-dimensioned continuous-time Maxkor chamn
(t) = Number of Class customer in the system
Where = 1,2………………..I.
Characterized by the birth rate = I; death rate =
) = steady state probability of process (t)
Then ) satisfies the equations:
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Biebuma J.J et al.,: Continental J. Information Technology 4: 78 - 89, 2010
i (0) = (1)
i )= ( + 1) for = 1,2,3…………
And the normalizing equation:
=1
Now, put: n =
= I in the above equation
=
Now consider a group of Si servers as a single serving each Class customer
C= ………………………………………….. eq (2)
Hence, by truncating equation (1)
Condition. 1 probability P(j) considered on becomes
P( ) = P( 1, 2……………... I) =
C= as ……………..eq (5)
Now, consider a set of K channels serving customers belong to I classes with traffic intensity each using
resources and a knapsack of Capacity C. Letting j = ( ,……… ) represent the possible states of the
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Knapsack, then the probability of occurrence of state is denoted equation 5.This equation holds by conditional
probability definition. B(m) is the probability that a class m customer is blocked; in this model, B(m) is derived
for each class. P( ) is the state probability vector for all . F(m) is the subset of the states in which an arriving
class m customer will not be blocked.
Solution
I = 2, K = 3, 1= 0.3; 1/ 1= 3; 2= 0.2; 1/ 2= 5
Recall : 1 = 3/0.3 = 10 Er ; 2 = 0.2/0.2 = 1 Er.
Compute the steady state probability by setting an arbitrary initial value to one of them ;
Let = SSP of the beirf in state after normalization
Let = SPP of the beirf in state before normalization
= the set of all state
= . = 0.3
To normalize, we compute
= 1+0.9+0.45+0.3+1+0.9 = 4.55
Therefore:
= = 0.21978022
= = 0.197802198
= = 0.98901099
= = 0.065934066
= = 0.21978022
= = 0.197802198
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SMS –MODEL
Erlang loss system is fashioned to dimension the requirements for signaling of SDCCH, and denoted by S. The
streams are assumed to be Poisson, the blocking probability, B, for each of the three jobs is same and equal to
B(s, a). We also model re-attempts on blocking, by assuming that every time a request is blocked, it is re-
attempted with probabillity r. With re-attempts, the effective arrival rate, λ ef f of a stream which has arrival
rate of new requests = λ, is given by λef f = λ/(1 − rB). This gives rise to a set of interdependent
equations, which can be solved iteratively until convergence is achieved.
eff = c (1- r B)
Where,
B = Blocking probability for the aggregate signally for traffic
I = intensity of aggregate traffic
r = probability of re-trial attempts
c = s + c+ v
B (s, a) =
Assuming that the number of voice calls are about 12 times as many as SMS messages we have λv = 6.6.
Assuming also that location updates are about 10% of this volume of SMS messages, giving us, λl = 0.05 per
cell per second.
Since the GSM connect time requirement for voice calls is less than 4 seconds, I assume that the voice call
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Erlang B/ Erlang C
CS PS service
Analogy
Blocking Rate Quantile &
delay
Algorithm Principle
Normalise Resources
C=1
No All Yes
services
Yes
Capacity= C ×
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setup part takes 0.5 seconds, i.e., µ v −1 = 0.5 on the SDCCH. In case of location updates, also assume an
additional 0.1 second of use of the SDCCH ,bringing the total to µ l −1 = 0.6.
For the enhanced Knapsack model shown below, normalization resource is:
= x
Since Knapsack can handle a circuit switched service mix, then enhanced Knapsack model algorithm is
developed to handle both circuit and packet switched traffic. To overcome the blocking and sharing grade of
service issues, an analogy in the similarities between Erlang-B and Erlang-C formulas have been imagined. By
resource normalization factor, the capacity keeps adjusting until the grade of service requirements are met for all
services.
DISCUSSION
Using stochastic knapsack” model as an extension of the Erlang-B algorithm to find the analytical of the
blocking probability for each service of voice and data, knowing the system capacity and the incoming traffic.
The performance of call blocking probability is drawn versus the traffic (A) as shown in Figure 5.
It is seen from the graph the blocking probability of FFH at(load = 2) is equal to (0.07), is more than GSM-
WFH at( load = 2) is equal to (0.0). The blocking probability is suppressed considerably by applying (DFH). If
we compare the Frequency Hopping systems for a loading of (3), GSM (no- FH) has a blocking probability of
(0.0), where when with hopping is 0.08; and 0.082 for DFH.
As loading increases, blocking probability for GSM (no- FH) increases very fast, while for FH this increase is
considerably slow. For DFH the blocking probability is (0) from loading (6), whereas after exploiting DFH, no
single user experiences outage until a very high loading value. It is seen from the graph In Figure (6), the
blocking probability of FH at user = (60) is equal (0.02), is less than GSM (no FH) at user = (60) and is equal
(0.03). The blocking probability is very low in DFH. If we compare between the systems for a loading of (60) at
(70), GSM (no-FH) has an outage probability of (0.09), where this probability decreases to (0.025) for FH and
(0.0) for DFH. As loading increases, blocking probability for GSM increases very fast, while for FH this
increase is considerably slow. For DFH the blocking probability is (0) until users number (70).
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DISCUSSION SUMMARY
The result of SE with DFH is (6.5 b/s/Hz), compared with FH (5.1 b/s/Hz) and GSM (3.5 b/s/Hz). It leads to an
improvement in performance of system and how reducing interference could allow the users to achieve higher
rate. Blocking probability is improved because of handling speed drop in received signal level for call. In
systems of GSM, blocking probability increases very fast by increasing the number of users. In FH technique,
the blocking increases slowly at the beginning. In DFH blocking probability increases very slowly with
increasing the number of users. The received power method gives better performance than other methods of
DFH. Because the speed of DFH/Pr process is faster than that of the other method by factor T/6 (where T is the
processing time).
CONCLUSION
The enhanced Knapsack model has developed a reliable and accurate Traffic model, which allows us to:
1. Address resource sharing by users accessing different services
2. Handle both circuit and packet switched services with different grade of service
3. Derive an optimised capacity reflecting the real traffic occurring in the cell to anticipate capacity analysis.
Also, based on the analysis conducted, the following conclusion could be drawn: the new developed variant of
Dynamic frequency Hopping has shown the method that does not allow received signal power to drop. Therefore
the received power method gives better performance than other methods of DFH, this is because the processing
speed of DFH/Pr is faster than that of any other method by a factor of T/6, that is, this is six times faster than
other methods (where T is the processing time).
From the SMS capacity analysis, it is observed that the effect of increasing volumes and sizes of SMS messages on GSM
network can be significant. SMS uses a resource that is shared by other very important control messages
(especially, voice call set-up).
The analytical method of data for cell dimensioning and the Lost traffic approach allows more accurate optimal
modelling.
CONTRIBUTION
Practical experiences have been able to assist to identify some practical requirements of some past
reviewed literatures so as to have more realistic framework for modelling. Essentially the need for
multiplicity technique in a GSM network capacity analysis, is a novel discovery. The work was able to
develop different specific Grade of Service tools of call blocking probability for different services on
GSM platform. Also able develop a technique to increase the spectral efficiency using Dynamic
Frequency Hopping that is received power based. Since the practical experience has revealed that
homogeneous cell size and regular frequency reuse simply assume that traffic density is homogeneous, this
does not reflect at all the real networks where the number of mobile users under a particular coverage area is
random and time varying due to user mobility, I was able to identify and develop the model describing no
homogeneities of traffic distributions of GSM network.
RECOMMENDATION
The following recommendations can make the work in this paper of great practical usefulness: further research
work that would develop a program tracking received signal level for determining the handover process and also
that would maintain the received signal power through communication processes is recommended for the
completion of this work. The implementation of these new techniques and tools should be implemented on the
live network to validate its accuracy.
FUTURE WORK
Another parameter that is important to consider for GSM network performance and capacity analysis is the
channel holding time. This can be defined as the time during which a new or handover call occupies a channel
in the given cell, and it is dependent on the mobility of the user. The accurate knowledge of the channel
holding time probability distribution function is expected to produce more accurate analysis of traffic
modeling. This is expected to improve the efficiency of the radio resources and thereby make possible the
development of new services offered through GSM platform such as GPRS/EDGE.
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