In telecommunication networks, traffic intensity is a measure of the average occupancy of a server or resource during a specified period of time, normally a busy hour. It is measured in traffic units (erlangs) and defined as the ratio of the time during which a facility is cumulatively occupied to the time this facility is available for occupancy.
In a digital network, the traffic intensity is:
where
- a is the average arrival rate of packets (e.g. packets/sec)
- L is the average packet length (e.g. in bits), and
- R is the transmission rate (e.g. bits/sec)
A traffic intensity greater than one erlang means that the rate at which bits arrive exceeds the rate bits can be transmitted and queuing delay will grow without bound (if the traffic intensity stays the same). If the traffic intensity is less than one erlang, then the router can handle more average traffic.
Telecommunication operators are vitally interested in traffic intensity, as it dictates the amount of equipment they must supply.
Famous quotes containing the words traffic and/or intensity:
“To treat a “big” subject in the intensely summarized fashion demanded by an evening’s traffic of the stage when the evening, freely clipped at each end, is reduced to two hours and a half, is a feat of which the difficulty looms large.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“Many women are surprised by the intensity of their maternal pull and the conflict it brings to their competing roles. This is the precise point at which many women feel the stress of the work/family dilemma most keenly. They realize that they may have a price to pay for wanting to be both professionals and mothers. They feel guilty for not being at work, and angry for being manipulated into feeling this guilt. . . . They don’t quite fit at home. They don’t quite fit at work.”
—Deborah J. Swiss (20th century)