TRUNKING

&
GRADE OF SERVICES
Key Definitions for Trunked
Radio
Trunking and Grade of
Service (GoS)
• Trunking is the concept that allows large number of
users to use a smaller number of channels (or phone
lines, customer service representatives, parking
spots, public bathrooms, …) as efficiently as
possible.
• It is clear that Trunking is based on statistics.
• The number of available channels in a trunked
system is directly related to the probability of call
blocking during peak time
Trunking and Grade of
Service (GoS)
• In some systems, because of high system demand,
calls that cannot be initiated are
-Blocked (caller will have to make the call later with
not priority at all). Such systems are sometimes
called Blocked Calls Cleared systems.
-Queued (call is placed in a queue for several
seconds until a free channel becomes available).
Such systems are sometimes called Blocked Calls
Queued systems.
• Trunking and Queuing theories were first studied by
a mathematician called Erlang
 What is an Erlang
• One Erlang is defined as the amount of traffic
intensity carrier by a channel that is completely
occupied
Therefore,
• 1 Erlang = 1 call with a duration of 1 hour over
a channel every hour
• = 2 calls with a duration of 0.5 hours over the
channel every hour
• = 30 calls with a duration of 4 minutes over the
channel every 2 hours (120 minutes)
• A channel that carries 2 calls of duration 5
minutes each per hour carries (2*5 min/60 min
= 1/6 Erlangs)
 Grade of Service (GOS)
• The grade of service (GOS) is related to the ability of
a mobile phone to access the trunked mobile
phone system during the busiest hour.
• To meet a specific GOS, the maximum required
capacity of the system must be estimated and
the proper number of channels must be allocated for
the system
• GOS is a measure of the congestion of the system
which is specified as the probability of a call
being blocked (Erlang B system) or the probability of
a call being delayed beyond a certain amount of time
(Erlang C system).
 Traffic Intensity
• Each user in a trunked system generates a Traffic
Intensity per User of U A Erlangs given by AU =
λ ⋅H
where λ = average number of call request per unit
time (Request Rate), and H = average duration of a
call (Holding Time).
• For a system with U users, total offered traffic
intensity A is (Offered Traffic Intensity)
• A =U ⋅ Au =U ⋅λ ⋅H
• In a trunked system with C channels with traffic that
is equally distributed among them, Traffic Intensity
per Channel Ac is given by

• When offered traffic intensity ( A) > Maximum

capacity of system � carrier traffic becomes limited
due to limited capacity of the system.
To study the traffic capacity of a trunked system, we will
assume the following three assumptions:

A) There are memoryless arrivals of call requests: all

users including users who had blocked called may
request a channel at any time. Also, because a user
has just had a call blocked, does not affect his decision
in making another call or the time to make that other
call.
B) The probability of a user occupying a channel is
exponentially distributed. So, longer calls have
lower probability.
C) There are a finite number of channels available in for
trunking.
n these assumptions, it is found that the probability of a call
in an Erlang B system is

probability of a call getting delayed for any period of time gr

ro is

bability of a call getting delayed for a period of time greater

me T is
Erlang B Trunking GOS
Erlang B
Erlang C
Multipath/Fading
• The wireless channel is a multipath
propagation channel.
• Multipath in the radio channel causes rapid
fluctuation of signal amplitude,called small
scale fading or simply fading.
• Fading is caused by destructive
interference of two or more versions of the
transmitted signal arriving at the receiver at
slightly different times(with different
amplitudes and phases).
Multipath/Fading
Multipath/Fading
• Delayed signals are the result of
reflections/scatterings from terrain
features such as trees, hills or
mountains, or objects such as people,
Vehicles, or buildings.
• The received signal may vary widely in
amplitude and phase over a short
period of time or travel distance
• Note the receiver may be stationary or
mobile.
Multipath/Fading
• At the receiver, a radio waves may be
generated from the same transmitted signal
may come
– From different directions
– With different propagation dealys(random)
– With different amplitudes(random)
– With different phases(random)
– With different angles of arrival(random)
• These multipath components combine vectorially
at the receiver antenna and cause the total
signal
to fade
to distort
Effects of Fading/Multipath
• Fading/Multipath results in:
– Rapid changes in signal strength over small
travel distances or short time intervals.
– Random frequency modulation due to varying
Doppler shifts on different multipath signals.
– Time dispersion(echoes) due to multipath
propagation delays.
Mobility in context of
Fading
• When the receiver is mobile
– Other objects(reflectors and scatterers) may be
mobile or stationary.
– If other objects are stationary
• Motion is only due to mobile receiver
– Fading is purely a spatial phenomenon ( occurs
only when the mobile receiver moves)
– The spatial variations as the mobile moves will be
perceived as temporal variations
Factors Influencing Small
Scale Fading
• Multipath Propagation
– Presence of reflecting objects and scatterers causes
• Multiple versions of the signal to arrive at the receiver with
different amplitudes and time delays.
• The total signal at the receiver to fade or distort.
• Speed of mobile
• Causes Doppler shift at each multipath component.
• Causes random frequency modulation
• Doppler shift will be positive or negative depending on whether
the mobile is moving toward or away from the BS.
 Factors Influencing Small
Scale Fading
• Speed of surrounding objects
– Causes time varying Doppler shift on the
multipath components.
– If the surrounding objects move at a greater rate
than the mobile, this effects dominates the small
scale fading.
– If the surrounding objects move at a slower rate
than the mobile their effects can be ignored.
– The term Coherence time determines how ‘static’
the channel is ( and depends on the Doppler shift)
 Factors Influencing Small
Scale Fading
• The transmission Bandwidth of the signal
– The transmitted radio signal bandwidth and the
‘bandwidth’ of the multipath channel decide:
• To what extend does the amplitude fluctuate
• To what extend does the signal distort
⁻ The channel bandwidth can be quantified by the term
called coherence Bandwidth.
⁻ The coherence Bandwidth is a measure of the
maximum frequency difference for which the signals
are still strongly correlated in amplitude.
 Coherence bandwidth:
It is the range of frequencies over which
two frequency components have a
potential for amplitude correlation.

If two sinusoids with a frequency

separation of greater than Bc are
propagating in the same channel, they are
affected quite differently by the channel.
Doppler Effect
• When a wave source (transmitter) and/or a
receiver is/are moving, the frequency of the
received signal will not be the same as that of the
transmitted signal.
– When they are moving towards each other, the
frequency of the received signal is higher than the
source.
– When they are opposing each other, the frequency
decreases.
– Thus , the frequency of the received signal is
– fR=fC-fD
– Where fc is the frequency of the source
carrier.
– fD Is the Doppler shift in frequency
Doppler’s Shift S

v
f d = cosθ
λ

where
fd =change in frequency X θ

Y
due to Doppler’s shift
v = constant velocity of the
mobile receiver
λ = wavelength of the transmission
Major Categories of
Fading :
Large Scale Fading :
This is the loss that propagation models try to
account for mostly dependant on the distance from the
transmitter to the receiver also known as Large Scale
Path Loss, Log-Normal Fading or Shadowing
Small Scale Fading :
Could be 20-30 dB over a fraction of a wavelength. It is
Caused by the superposition or cancellation of multipath
propagation signals, the speed of the transmitter or
receiver or the bandwidth of the transmitted signal. It is
also known as Multipath Fading or Rayleigh Fading
Effect of Multipath Propagation
• Multiple copies of the signal may arrive with
different phases. If the phases add destructively,
the signal level reduces relative to noise.
• Inter Symbol Interference (ISI)
 Parameters of Mobile Multipath
Channels: 
In order to compare different multipath
channels we need parameters which quantify
the multipath channel, they are:

1. Delay spread
2. Coherence bandwidth
3. Doppler spread
4. Coherence time
 Factors Influencing Fading
• Motion of the receiver: Doppler shift
• Transmission bandwidth of signal
– Compare to BW of channel
• Multipath propagation
– Receiver sees multiple instances of
signal when waves follow different paths
– Very sensitive to configuration of
environment

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 30

 Effects of Multipath Signals
• Rapid change in signal strength due
to phase cancellation
• Frequency modulation due to
Doppler shifts from movement of
receiver/environment
• Echoes caused by multipath
propagation delay

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 31

 The Multipath Channel
• One approach to small-scale models
is to model the “Multipath Channel”
– Linear time-varying function h(t,τ )
• Basic idea: define a filter that
encapsulates the effects of multipath
interference
– Measure or calculate the channel impulse
response (response to a short pulse at fc):

h(t,τ )
t τ τ
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 32
 Channel Sounding
• “Channel sounding” is a way to
measure the channel response
– transmit impulse, and measure the response to
find h(τ ).
– h(τ ) can then be used to model the channel
response to an arbitrary signal: y(t) =
x(t)⊗h(τ ).
– Problem: models the channel at single point in
time; can’t account for mobility or
environmental changes
h(t,τ )
τ τ

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 33

 Characterizing Fading *

*Adapted from EE535 Slides, Chugg ‘99

• From the impulse response we can
characterize the channel:
• Characterizing distortion
– Delay spread (τ d): how long does the
channel ring from an impulse?
– Coherence bandwidth (Bc): over what
frequency range is the channel gain flat?
– τ d∝1/Bc
In time domain, roughly corresponds to the
“fidelity” of the response; sharper pulse
requires wider band
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 34
 Effect of Delay Spread *

For a system with bw W and symbol time T...

• Does the channel distort the signal?
– if W << Bc: “Flat Fading”
• Amplitude and phase distortion only
– if W > Bc: “Frequency Selective Fading”
• If T < τ d, inter-symbol interference (ISI) occurs
• For narrowband systems (W ≈ 1/T), FSF ⇒ ISI.
• Not so for wideband systems (W >> 1/T)

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 35

 Qualitative Delay Spread
RMS Delay spread (σ )

Typical values for σ :

Indoor: 10-100 ns
Mean excess delay
Outdoor: 0.1-10 µ s
Power(dB)→

Noise threshold

Delay→

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 36

 Characterizing Fading 2 *

• Characterizing Time-variation: How does the

impulse response change with time?
– Coherence time (tc): for what value of ∆ are
responses at t and t+∆ uncorrelated? (How
quickly is the channel changing)
– Doppler Spread (fd): How much will the spectrum
of the input be spread in frequency?
– fd∝1/tc

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 37

 Effect of Coherence Time *

For •a system with bw W and symbol time T...

Is the channel constant over many
uses?
– if T << tc: “Slow fading”
• Slow adaptation required
– if T > tc: “Fast fading”
• Frequent adaptation required
• For typical systems, symbol rate is high
compared to channel evolution

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 38

Doppler Spread and
Coherence Time:
Doppler spread and Coherence Time take into
account the relative motion between mobile
and base station, or by movements of objects
in the channel.
They describe the time varying nature of
the channel in a small scale region.
 Doppler Spread Bd:
When a signal of frequency fc is
transmitted, the received signal spectrum,
called the Doppler spectrum, will have
components fc - fd to fc + fd, where fd is the
Doppler shift.

Coherence time Tc:

It is used to characterize the time
varying nature of the frequency
depressiveness of the channel in the time
domain
Small Scale Fading:
Different types of transmitted signals undergo different
types of fading depending upon the relation between the
Signal Parameters: Bandwidth, Symbol Period
and
Channel Parameters: RMS Delay Spread,
Doppler Spread
• In any mobile radio channel a wave can be dispersed
either in Time or in Frequency.
• These time and frequency dispersion mechanisms lead
to four possible distinct effects which depend on the
nature of transmitted signal, the channel and the velocity.
Fading
• Fading effects due to Multipath Time
Delay Spread
-Flat Fading
-Frequency Selective Fading
• Fading effects due to Doppler Spread
- Fast Fading
- Slow Fading
Flat Fading
• A received signal is said to have underwent Flat Fading if
“The Mobile Radio Channel has a constant gain and linear
phase response over a Bandwidth which is greater than the
Bandwidth of the transmitted Signal”
• Fading in which all frequency components of a received
radio signal vary in the same proportion simultaneously.
• Here the multipath structure of the channel is such that
spectral characteristics of the transmitted signal are
preserved at the receiver
• But due to the fluctuations in the gain of the channel
caused by multipath, the signal strength varies with time
Flat Fading
• From the figure we can note that if the channel
gain varies with time, a change of amplitude of
the received signal occurs.
• From the figure we can note that the spectrum
of the received signal r(t) is preserved even
though there is a change in gain.
• Flat fading channels are also referred as
amplitude varying channels or narrow
band channels, since the bandwidth of the
applied signal is narrow as compared to the
channel flat fading bandwidth.
Frequency Selective Fading:
The channel creates frequency selective fading on the
received signal when the channel possesses a constant
gain and linear phase response over a bandwidth,
which is smaller than the bandwidth of the transmitted
signal

• Under these conditions the channel impulse response has a

multipath delay spread which is greater than the reciprocal
bandwidth of the transmitted message waveform
• So the received signal includes multiple versions of the
transmitted waveform, which are attenuated and delayed in
time, and hence the received signal is distorted.
Frequency Selective Fading
• Frequency selective fading is much difficult to model
than flat fading channels because each multipath
signal must be modeled and the channel must be
considered to be a linear filter
• It is for this reason that wideband multipath
measurements are made and models are developed
from these measurements
• When analyzing mobile communication systems,
statistical impulse response models such as the 2-ray
Rayleigh model or computer generated or measured
impulse responses are generally used for analyzing
frequency selective small-scale fading.
 Fading Effects Due to Doppler
Spread:
• Channels are also classified depending upon how
rapidly the transmitted baseband signal changes
compared to the rate of change of channel.
• It is either Fast Fading or Slow Fading channel.
• The velocity of the mobile (or the velocity of the
objects in the channels) and the baseband
signaling determines whether a signal undergoes
fast or slow fading.
Fast Fading:
•In Fast Fading channel the channel impulse
response changes at a rate much faster than
the transmitted baseband signal.
• In other words the coherence time of the
channel is smaller than the symbol period of
the transmitted signal.
• This causes frequency dispersion due to
Doppler spreading, which leads to signal
distortion.
• When viewed in frequency domain, signal
distortion due to fast fading increases with
increasing Doppler spread relative to the
bandwidth of the transmitted signal.
 • Hence a signal will undergo fast
fading if T >T s c

and
Bs < BD

ote: When a channel is specified as Fast or Slow fading channel,

does not specify whether the channel is flat fading or frequency selective in natu
Slow Fading:
•In Slow Fading channel the channel impulse
response changes at a rate much slower than the
transmitted baseband signal
• Here the channel may be assumed static over
one or several bandwidth intervals.
• In the frequency domain, this implies that the
Doppler spread of the channel is much less than
the bandwidth of the baseband channel.
 • Hence a signal will undergo slow
T << T
fading if and
s c

Bs >> BD

Fast and Slow Fading deal with the relationship between the time rate of change
el and the transmitted signal, and not with the propagation path loss models.