Enhanced Methods for Planning Multi-Service Networks

Lucent's enhanced methods for packet network planning have to take into account services with variable bandwidth requirements. Since the bandwidth requirement of a single variable bandwidth source or service is supposed to show a bursty behaviour, an on-off source model based on a multi-rate Markov model is used. From parameters defined in this model, it is possible to calculate the required equivalent bandwidth, which then can be used for the dimensioning of the network resources taking into account a generalized Erlang formula. Packet networks are not only seized by this payload but also by additional packet and protocol overheads. To handle these different protocol overheads together with compression and decompression effects on different interfaces the particular parameters of the bandwidth formula are changed with appropriate scaling or overhead factors. A planning system will be utilized to perform such service-dependent planning tasks. The paper will show some of the utilised modelling parameters together with some results from an example UMTS core network.