Skip to main content
Log in

On optimal call admission control in cellular networks

  • Published:
Wireless Networks Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Two important Quality-of-Service (QoS) measures for current cellular networks are the fractions of new and handoff “calls” that are blocked due to unavailability of “channels” (radio and/or computing resources). Based on these QoS measures, we derive optimal admission control policies for three problems: minimizing a linear objective function of the new and handoff call blocking probabilities (MINOBJ), minimizing the new call blocking probability with a hard constraint on the handoff call blocking probability (MINBLOCK) and minimizing the number of channels with hard constraints on both of the blocking probabilities (MINC). We show that the well-known Guard Channel policy is optimal for the MINOBJ problem, while a new Fractional Guard Channel policy is optimal for the MINBLOCK and MINC problems. The Guard Channel policy reserves a set of channels for handoff calls while the Fractional Guard Channel policy effectively reserves a non-integral number of guard channels for handoff calls by rejecting new calls with some probability that depends on the current channel occupancy. It is also shown that the Fractional policy results in significant savings (20-50\%) in the new call blocking probability for the MINBLOCK problem and provides some, though small, gains over the Guard Channel policy for the MINC problem. Further, we also develop computationally inexpensive algorithms for the determination of the parameters for the optimal policies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. A. S. Acampora and M. Naghshineh, Control and quality-of-service provisioning in high-speed microcellular networks, IEEE Personal Communications 1(2) (1994) 36–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. D. P. Bertsekas, Dynamic Programming: Deterministic and Stochastic Models (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  3. C. Chatfield, The Analysis of Time Series: An Introduction (Chapman-Hall, New York, 3rd ed., 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  4. D. C. Cox, Personal communications – a viewpoint, IEEE Communications Magazine 28(11) (1990).

  5. D. Hong and S. S. Rappaport, Traffic model and performance analysis for cellular mobile radio telephone systems with prioritized and nonprioritized handoff procedures, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 35(3) (1986) 77–92.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Y.-B. Lin and W. Chen, Call request buffering in a PCS network, in: IEEE Infocom (June 1994) pp. 585–592.

  7. Y.-B. Lin and W. Chen, Impact of busy lines and mobility on cell blocking in a PCS network, IEEE J. Selected Areas in Communications, submitted.

  8. Y.-B. Lin, S. Mohan and A. Noerpel, PCS channel assignment strategies for handoff and initial access, IEEE Personal Communications Magazine 1(3) (1994).

  9. B. L. Miller, A queueing reward system with several customer classes, Management Science 16(3) (1969).

  10. P. Nain and K. Ross, Optimal multiplexing of heterogeneous traffic with hard constraint, in: Proceedings of ACM Sigmetrics (1986) pp. 100–108.

  11. S.-H. Oh and D.-W. Tcha, Prioritized channel assignment in a cellular radio network, IEEE Transactions on Communications 40(7) (1992) 1259–1269.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. E. C. Posner and R. Guerin, Traffic policies in cellular radio that minimize blocking of handoff calls, ITC-11, Kyoto (1985).

  13. S. Ross, Applied Probability Models with Optimization Applications (Holden-Day, 1970).

  14. S. Tekinary and B. Jabbari, Handover and channel assignment in mobile cellular networks, IEEE Communications Magazine (November 1991) 42–46.

  15. S. Tekinary and B. Jabbari, A measurement based prioritization scheme for handovers in cellular and microcellular networks, IEEE J. Selected Areas in Communications (October 1992).

  16. J. Walrand, An Introduction to Queueing Networks (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1988).

  17. C. H. Yoon and K. Un, Performance of personal portable radio telephone systems with and without guard channels, IEEE J. Selected Areas in Communications 11(6) (August 1993) 911–917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ramjee, R., Towsley, D. & Nagarajan, R. On optimal call admission control in cellular networks. Wireless Networks 3, 29–41 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019172226345

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019172226345

Keywords

Navigation