ABSTRACT

 In this work, computer-aided study of telephone traffic in Umuahia-NITEL exchange, Southeast Nigeria was carried out to seek empirical causes to call losses. The study compared available circuits at the exchange with the traffic load and determined the tele-density of the town as well as the existing grade of service at the exchange. It equally embarked on development of a computer programme package based on measured "carried traffic" to determine necessary parameters for better trunk services. With the determined parameters, existing trunk circuits were redesigned for improved grade of service. The approach involved the use of two dedicated PCs each with a pentium 4 microprocessor and 32Mb RAM, linked to the Urnuahia digital exchange via EICON interface card for X.25 connection. BMML. COMl network package enabled traffic measurements to be made. The study shows that out of the 1203 installed trunk circuits, only 987 are active to carry the 2513.78 erlangs of busy hour traffic per day, implying that existing load is more than the existing circuits can carry. Tele-density of the town for local calls reveal a figure of 61 people per telephone line. Present grade of Service was deteimined at a loss of 1 call in every 2, which is very' pooi. Consequently, trunk circuits were redesigned for improved grade of service of 1 call loss in 100. The entire work and procedures are hereby presented