Modelling resource management for multi-class traffic in mobile cellular networks

Future cellular mobile networks will be limited by the number of channels available in each cell. On the other hand, new broadband applications like video telephony will demand tight quality of service guarantees that must be met by the network at all times. Thus, advanced mechanisms for allocating these channels to incoming calls with different quality of service level will be of utmost importance. In this paper we introduce a new analytical model for cell channel allocation to multiclass traffic. Being based on Markov chains, the new model exploits the multi-class property and reduces the state space dramatically, thus enabling the solution of previously unsolvable problem classes. We additionally describe CECALL, a simulator implementing several different strategies for allocating cell channels to multiclass traffic, handoff pre-reservation and degradation of low-level call classes. The results of the analytical model are used for explaining important simulation results.