Teletraffic engineering for mobile personal communications in ITU-T work: the need to match practice and theory

Guidance on traffic engineering for fixed networks and telephone service has been successfully developed by the ITU-T (formerly CCITT). This guidance has been based on a communication paradigm which has included regulated operation environment, operation domains matched to national boundaries, centralized control, and predictable service quality. These assumptions are being challenged more and more with the introduction of new communication modes, the increasing popularity of mobile and personal communications services, and deregulated operation. As a result, new paradigms are emerging for 21st century telecommunications. In such a framework, continued user satisfaction and operator revenue growth with personal communications services require that suitable traffic engineering methods be devised. These methods should help reconcile the expected service quality with cost-effective dimensioning and operation of networks and infrastructure for supporting a range of services, as well as provide a means for capitalizing on investments in traditional/existing telecommunications infrastructure. The article notes that in order to arrive at sensible ITU-T Recommendations on traffic engineering for personal communications networks, practice and theory should be mutually supportive.