Shanghai, China, March 15, 2017: Huawei’s mLAB, part of its 2012 Labs program, has proposed a new traffic blocking theory for data services – the first innovative theory about traffic blocking for data services since Agner Krarup Erlang created voice traffic blocking theory over 100 years ago.

The theory facilitates scientific capacity planning and optimization for data networks, the whitepaper for which has been accepted by the IEEE ICC.

Agner Krarup Erlang, a Danish mathematician, proposed the traffic blocking theory in 1909 and it has been widely used for voice system design for more than 100 years. In this theory, when all channels are occupied in a voice system, new calls will be blocked or queued. This does not affect users with ongoing services in the system. However, a mobile broadband (MBB) network allows users performing data services to access it using a best effort method.

New users share the bandwidth with existing users, impacting the experience of all users on the network. As data networks, such as 4G networks, are rapidly deployed, data services, such as social and video applications, are replacing traditional voice services as the main services on the network. Data service growth and hotspot unpredictability make the measurement of system capacity difficult. Therefore, an accurate theory is urgently needed to make the design of data network capacity simpler.

Huawei has proposed a method of evaluating system capacity based on both experience blocking and resource usage. Huawei also formulated an experience blocking table (EB table) to facilitate scientific planning, the optimization of system capacity, and to incorporate data service characteristics into the system capacity design.

For example, assuming 5 Mbit/s is required for each user to play 1080p video without stalling, for a typical LTE cell with an average throughput of 40 Mbit/s, the cell capacity can be equivalent to eight (40/5 = 8) logical channels. During system capacity design, given that the video playback blocking (video stalling) probability is 5%, the cell can satisfy the needs of an average of five concurrent video users.

If an operator requires high video fluency and decreases the video playback blocking probability to 2%, according to the experience blocking traffic theory, a cell with a throughput of 45 Mbit/s (nine logical channels) is needed. Therefore, this theory can be used to help design improved network capacity.

Huawei’s mLAB has launched an application kit for traffic blocking theory for data services, including a traffic model analysis and simulation platform, EB table SDK, and related websites.

In addition, Huawei mLAB will work with operators and other experts, supporting studies and other projects, to constantly optimize and improve this theory.