48750 Network Planning and Management

The objectives of this subject are for students to develop competencies needed for the planning and management of networks, particularly in the areas of traffic source modelling, performance analysis, dimensioning, simulation and management.

Students acquire a solid foundation in: modelling of traffic, including bursty sources; dimensioning of fixed networks (primary, alternate, and final route trunking and switching facilities); mobile networks (GSM and CDMA); frame relay networks; performance analysis of networks based on queuing theory; circuit switching networks; packet switching networks; ATM networks; Local Area Networks (LANs); computer networks; design of common transmission, switching and service facilities based on a performance/cost analysis aimed at optimising the usage of network resources; simulation tools, particularly Sigma, to model and analyse the performance of networks; network management based on the interplay principle between commercial and technical aspects of designing the network; and utilising the technical tools learned above while meeting budget and resource constraints.

Topics include:

Part 1

Traffic Source Modelling (CBR, bursty VBR) – point processes with applications to source traffic modelling; Markov chain theory; other stochastic processes: autoregressive; autoregressive moving average; fluid traffic.

Part 2

Network design, planning and dimensioning – introduction to teletraffic engineering; basics of traffic system design; traffic models for loss and delay systems; designing alternate routing networks; additional applications: traffic analysis in digital telephony; dimensioning of incoming and outgoing lines to/from PABX; dimensioning principles of mobile networks; GSM dimensioning; CDMA dimensioning; dimensioning principles of frame relay networks.

Part 3

Performance analysis and management of networks – continuous time queuing theory; network of queues. Additional applications include: performance analysis of medium-access control protocols; computer communications networks; and statistical multiplexing. Advanced applications include traffic management in ATM; teletraffic considerations in PCs; and network management principles.

Part 4

Network simulation and modelling validation – overview of discrete event system modelling; tutorial on SIGMA. Selected topics include: single queue, single-server model; single queue, multi-server model; multi-queue, multi-server model; single queue with different arrival patterns; server with service breaks; events with priorities; cancellation of events; entering of new events to the system; system performance evaluations; and individual service utilisation.

Assessment: Typically assessment for this subject involves laboratory work and assignments as well as mid-semester and final examinations.

Typical availability

Autumn semester, City campus
Spring semester, City campus