Networks Traffic Theory

M.Sc. Course
Lecture 1: Introduction to Network Traffic Theory
Prof. Dr. Emad Al-Hemiary
Al-Nahrain University
College of Information Engineering
Building B Room B107
emad@coie-nahrain.edu.iq

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This topic contains:

❑Definitions
❑Objectives of traffic theory
❑Traffic models
❑Statistical properties and traffic intensity
❑Concept of busy hour

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What is network traffic theory?
Applying probability theory to model, simulate, and solve problems of planning,
performance evaluation, operation, and maintenance of communication systems
and networks using stochastic processes, queueing theory and numerical
simulation.

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What is a stochastic process?
A stochastic (random) process is any process describing the evolution in time of a random
phenomenon.

Examples:

• Distribution of number of tasks at the CPU

• Waiting time distribution in a queue (router, supermarket, mobile operator, …)

• Distribution of arrival of customers to a supermarket

• Queue length distribution in a buffer

• Distribution of the number of connections in progress

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What is queueing theory?
Examines every component of waiting in line to be served, including the arrival
process, service process, number of servers, number of system places, and the
number of customers—which might be people, data packets, cars, etc.

Queue Server

Customers arrive to Customers

demand service complete service

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Objectives of Traffic Theory
Use mathematical models to derive relationships between Quality of Service (QoS) and
System Capacity to make Traffic measurable in well-defined units

QoS
Traffic theory tasks:
➢ Given a future knowledge of traffic and system capacity, what would
QoS be?
▪ User level: delay, dropped packets, blocked traffic, …

➢ To what level traffic is increased without deteriorating QoS?

▪ Maximum load (throughput)
Traffic System
▪ Traffic shaping to maintain QoS Capacity
➢ How to determine system capacity to achieve certain QoS with a given
traffic?
▪ Type and capacity of used devices such as routers, switches, Aps, …
▪ Buffer size of a router

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Traffic Models
❑ Modeling process requires knowledge of both the technical system, available
mathematical tools, and the implementation of the model in a computer.

❑ Main system functionality are described by means of server and queue elements

❑ It describes behavior of incoming traffic, processed traffic, as well as blocked traffic

based on measurements of real traffic

❑ Traffic theory is an inductive discipline:

• From observations of real systems we establish theoretical models, from which we

derive parameters, which can be compared with corresponding observations from
the real system. If there is agreement, the model has been validated. If not, then we
Deduction:
have to elaborate the model further. This scientific way of working is called the
Conclusions and
research loop. predictions based
on the model
❑ Models must be simple and feasible to dimension in practice

❑ Models must be verifiable

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Statistical Properties of Network Traffic
❑ User demands are modeled by statistical properties of the traffic

❑ It appears natural to split the description of the traffic properties into random processes for
arrival of call attempts and processes describing service (holding) times.

❑ These two processes are usually assumed to be mutually independent, meaning that the
duration of a call is independent of the time the call arrive.

❑ Models also exists for describing the behavior of users (subscribers) experiencing blocking, i.e.
they are refused service and may make a new call attempt a little later (repeated call attempts)

Illustration of the terminology applied for a traffic

process. Notice the difference between time intervals
and instants of time. We use the terms arrival, call,
and connection synonymously. The interarrival time,
respectively the interdeparture time, are the time
intervals between arrivals, respectively departures.

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Traffic Intensity
❑ Traffic intensity is a measure of the fraction of time servers are busy.
Founder of traffic
❑ It describes the mean number of simultaneous calls in progress theory in telephony

❑ It is a bare number, but oftenly, Erlangs unit is used

𝜌=𝜆∙𝑠

Where:

𝜆 = Arrival rate (number of incoming calls per unit time)

𝑠 = Mean holding (duration) time (service time of a call)

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Offered, Blocked, and Carried Traffic

 Theoretical quantity
Actual traffic processed by
representing
the system
incoming traffic to the
system as if the
Queue Server
system has unlimited Offered traffic Carried traffic

capacity  𝒄
𝒔

𝒍
Blocked traffic Finite capacity

Fraction of incoming
arrivals (calls or jobs)
blocked due to lack of  = 𝒄+𝒍
capacity

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Traffic Volume
❑ Amount of traffic carried during a period of time
❑ Measured in Erlang-hr or call-min

Example
In a local voice switch, incoming call requests per hour is 1500 and the mean holding time is 4 minutes. What is traffic
intensity? What will the traffic volume be for one day?

𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙 4
𝜌 = 𝑠 = 1500 × ℎ𝑟 = 100 𝐸𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔
ℎ𝑟 60
𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 100 × 24 = 2400 𝐸𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔 − ℎ𝑟

If a private subscriber generates 0.01 to 0.04 Erlang, then total population that generate a load of 100 Erlang is about
2500 to 10000 subscribers.

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Busy Hour
❑ Traffic is of a stochastic nature, partly of a deterministic nature
❑ Traffic varies according to subscribers activity
❑ Busy hour: The period of duration of one hour where the volume of
the traffic is the greatest
❑ Defined by ITU-T E.600 as:
❑ Average Daily Peak Hour (ADPH) traffic: The average busy hour
traffic of several days. It is usually not related to the same hour
each day.
❑ Time Consistent Busy Hour (TCBH) traffic: The 1-hour period
starting at the same time each day for which the average traffic
of the resource group concerned is greatest over the days
under consideration.
❑ Day to Busy Hour Ratio (DBHR): The ratio of the 24-hour day
traffic volume to the busy hour traffic volume.

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Busy Hour

ADPH TCBH
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