
17 Channel occupancy, availability
and trunking
17.1 Channel occupancy and availability
The usefulness of any communications network depends on successful
calls. Assuming that no calls fail for technical reasons, the success rate
depends on the amount of traffic on the channel and how well it is
managed. Channel occupancy is a measure of the amount of traffic
carried and is affected by:
1. the number of subscribers (mobiles on a radio network)
2. the number of calls per subscriber in a given time
3. the average duration of each message.
The occupancy of any system varies hourly, daily and possibly sea-
sonally. To be successful the network must be able