How
to Determine the Correct Number of Lines, Trunks and Channels
for Your Telecom Systems
As
your company or organization grows, chances are good that
the need for increased capacity for carrying telephone
traffic will increase.
In
fact, to provide that fewer and fewer
callers ever receive a busy signal, the
number of facilities for carrying those
calls must be increased disproportionately.
But how do you know just what configuration
you will need to handle the increased
traffic in an efficient manner?
Introducing
is a powerful computer program that we at TelCon
Associates have developed for use with our clients
to help them determine the correct amount of "servers"
(lines, trunks, circuits, etc.) for their companies. It
is a program that we developed and, frankly, we are quite
proud of it.
In
a moment, we will show you where to go to analyze your
traffic for free using
Traffic
Concepts Explained
Efficient
telecommunications requires enough lines to carry desired
calls/sessions. The telecommunications industry has generally
planned for enough lines to provide a P.01 grade of service
(GOS), which means that one caller out of 100 will be
blocked (receive a busy signal) on the first call attempt
during the busiest hour (within a specified period, usually
a day).
Of
course, with a P.01 GOS far fewer busy signals will be
encountered during less-busy hours. P.01 GOS is ideal
for many circumstances. But if more than 1% busy signals
is acceptable, fewer lines will be needed. And assurance
of fewer busy signals will require more lines.
How
Does
Work?
uses queuing theory, a statistical method for predicting
service levels within a system that provides a service
of random duration to users demanding service at random
times.
The
problem with traffic formulas and tables found in books
is they require that the total amount of offered traffic
be known and expressed in Erlangs in order to calculate
the grade of service for various numbers of servers (e.g.,
lines, trunks/channels).
However,
in most real-world situations, available data usually
describe carried, not offered traffic, and are rarely
expressed in Erlangs.
overcomes two of these deficiencies by calculating accurately
using carried traffic and busy-hour hours (Erlangs), minutes
or CCS (100-second units) as direct inputs. And it represents
GOS as a percentage, rather than a decimal (i.e., P.0100
= 1.00%). (The user must determine the busy-hour hours,
minutes, or CCS to be entered.)
How
to Use
First,
CLICK
HERE to open
in your browser. Before you begin entering data, become
familiar with these terms:
Now
Enter Data Into
With
the program opened in your browser, select (click on)
busy-hour units of calling/traffic - hours, minutes or
CCS and follow these simple steps:
Two
data factors must be entered; enter corresponding numbers
(e.g., 1 and 3 indicates that you will enter the number
of lines/trunks and the amount of carried traffic.
Click
on "Calculate." Calculated values for the other
three factors will appear.
If additional calculations are desired, repeat steps 2-4.
It is not necessary to clear values before entering numbers
for a new calculation.
Values
from any calculation can be saved for viewing with new
calculations by clicking on "Save Values" before
starting a new round of data entry.
All entries and values can be cleared by clicking on "Clear
Values."
or simply...
