TRUNCATED POISSION DISTRIBUTION

• Previously we assume all channels to be infinite. This conforms

with the requirements of Offered Traffic where it cannot be
calculated and the channels are infinite.

• In this topic we will look into the FINITE channels where there
will be blockings once all the channels are occupied.

STATE PROBABILITIES

• We will get the similar cut equations as what we’ve discussed

before in the infinite case, but in this case, the number of states
(which represents the busy channels) is limited and the
normalisation conditions now becomes:

−1
⎧ A ⎫ j

p(0 ) = ⎨∑ ⎬
n

⎩ j =0 j! ⎭
• So the distribution will be called as the Truncated Poisson
Distribution, or Erlang’s first formula, i.e. Erlang-B formula,
given as…

Ai
p(i ) = n i! i , 0 ≤ i ≤ n
A
∑
j =0 i!
TRAFFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ERLANG’S B-FORMULA

• By calculating the state probabilities, we can find the

performance measures defined by state probabilities.

o Time Congestion
ƒ It’s the probabilities that all n channels are busy at a
random of time EQUAL to the proportion of time all
channels are busy.

ƒ Thus we can assume that i = n and …

From

Ai
p(i ) = n i! i , 0 ≤ i ≤ n
A
∑
j =0 i!

We derive it to…

An
E n ( A) = p(n ) = n!
A2 An
1+ A + + ... +
2! n!
(Erlang’s Famous B-formula)
o Call Congestion:

ƒ The probability that the call will lost is EQUAL to

the proportion of call attempts blocked. If we
consider one time unit, we find B = Bn ( A) :

λ ⋅ p(n )
B= = p(n ) = En ( A)
∑ λ ⋅ p(v )
n

v =0

o Carried Traffic:

ƒ If we use the cut equation between states [i – 1] and

[i] we get: -
λ ⋅ p(0 ) = μ ⋅ p(1)
λ ⋅ p(1) = 2 μ ⋅ p(2)
L
λ ⋅ p(i − 2 ) = (i − 1)μ ⋅ p(i − 1)
λ ⋅ p(i − 1) = iμ ⋅ p(i )
λ
⋅ p(i − 1) = i ⋅ p(i )
μ

Which translates to …
λ
Y = ∑ ⋅ p (i − 1) = ∑ i ⋅ p (i ) = A ⋅ {1 − p (n )}
n n

i =1 μ i =1

Y = A ⋅ {1 − E n ( A)}

Where A is the offered traffic. The carried traffic will be less

than both A and n.
 o Lost Traffic:

Al = A − Y = A ⋅ En ( A)

o Traffic congestion:

A−Y
C= = E n ( A)
A

• We thus have E = B = C because the call intensity is independent

of the state (valid for all Poisson processes)

ERLANG-B FORMULA GRAPH

TRAFFIC CARRIED BY THE i'th TRUNK (THE UTILISATION ai ):

• Random Hunting:

o In this case all channels carry the same traffic on the

average. The total carried traffic is independent of the
hunting strategy and we find the utilisation:

Y A{1 − En ( A)}
ai = a = =
n n

o We observed that for a given congestion E we obtain the

highest utilisation for large channel groups (economy of
scale)
 • Ordered hunting = Sequential hunting: The traffic by channel i is
the difference between the traffic lost from i – 1 channels:

ai = A.{Ei −1 ( A) − Ei ( A)}

Note that also that the traffic carried by the i channels is

independent of the total number of channels and thus no
influence on the traffic carried by channel i.

IMPROVEMENT FUNCTION:

• The improvement function shows the increase in carried traffic,

when the number of channels increased by one (1), from n to
n+1:

Mathematically we can equate it as …

Fn ( A) = Yn +1 − Yn
= A{1 − En+1 } − A{1 − En }
Fn ( A) = A{En ( A) − En +1 ( A)}
= an +1

And… 0 ≤ Fn ( A) ≤ 1

PEAKEDNESS

• Defined as the ratio between the variance and the mean value of
the distribution of the number of busy channels. Thus for
Truncated Poisson Distribution,

σ2
Z= = 1 − A{En−1 ( A) − En ( A)} = 1 − an
m
DURATION OF STATE [i]

• Total intensity for leaving state [i] is constant and equal to

(λ + iμ ) .
Thus, the duration of the time in state [i] is exponentially
distributed with density function:

f i (t ) = (λ + iμ ) ⋅ e − ( λ +iμ )t , 0≤i≤n
f n (t ) = (nμ ) ⋅ e −( nμ )t , i=n
GENERAL PROCEDURE FOR STATE TRANSITION DIAGRAMS

• Very important tool in Teletraffic theory where it models the

formulation and solution of the traffic problems.

• We can generalise the steps to produce state transition diagrams.

STEP 1: Construction of the state transition diagram

• Define the states of the system in a unique way.

• Draw the states as circles.
• Consider the states one at a time and draw all possible arrows
for transitions away from this state due to: -

o The arrival process (new arrival or phase shift in the

arrival process)

o The departure (service) process (the service time

terminates or shifts phase).

• With this we may obtain the complete state transition diagram.

STEP 2: Set up the equations describing the system.

• If the conditions for statistical equilibrium are fulfilled, the

steady state equations can be obtained from

o Node equations (general)

o Cut equations.
STEP 3: Solve the balance equations assuming statistical equilibrium.

• Express all state probabilities by for example the probability

of state [0], p(0).

• Find p(0) by normalisation.

STEP 4

• Calculate the performance measures expressed by the state

probabiltities.

NOTE:

• In practice, we let the non-normalised value of the state

probability q(0) equal to one, and then calculate the relative
values q (i), (i = 1, 2, …).

• By normalising we will find that …

q(i )
p(i ) = , i = 0,1,..., n,
Qn

Where Qn = ∑ q(v )
n

v =0

• Time congestion becomes: -

q(n ) Q
p(n ) = = 1 − n −1
Qn Qn
EVALUATION OF ERLANG’S B-FORMULA

• Earlier on, we obtained the Time Congestion formula as: -

An
E n ( A) = p(n ) = n!
A2 An
1+ A + + ... +
2! n!
• However for numerical calculations, the formula above is not
appropriate since both n! and An increase so quickly which
results the occurrence of overflow in the computer.

• With the recursive formula, from the numerical point of view,

it’s more stable.

A ⋅ En−1 ( A)
E n ( A) = , E0 = 1
n + A ⋅ En −1 ( A)

Example:

We consider an Erlang-B loss system with n = 6 channels, arrival rate

λ = 2 calls per time unit, and departure rate of μ = 1 departure per time
unit, so that the offered traffic is A = 2 Erlang. If we denote the non-
normalised relative state probabilities by q(i)…

(a) Draw the state transition diagram and find the state probabilities
when the system is in statistical equilibrium.

(b) Calculate the Time Congestion

(c) Calculate the Traffic Congestion

(d) Calculate the Call Congestion