Performance Evaluation of the Interconnect Clearing Houses in the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry

Abstract

A telecommunications Clearinghouse (CH) refers to a central exchange where calls from different mobile network operators (MNOs) are interconnected for the purpose of independently measuring how much traffic from one MNO was carried by another MNO. This enables interconnection traffic and billing to be correctly determined without dispute between concerned MNOs. There are ongoing contentions between the MNOs and the Clearing Houses in Nigeria, as to whether the Clearing houses have adequate infrastructural capacity to carry the off-net traffic routed through them by the MNOs. This paper presents the performance analysis of two out of the five licensed interconnect clearing houses in Nigeria. This was done by analyzing data obtained from the facilities. Basic parameters from this data, which was collected at Time Consistent Busy Hours (TCBH) are the carried calls (i.e. total incoming traffic), the Circuit Seizures or the CCS figures, and the congestion figures. These parameters are then used to calculate some critical exchange performance parameters such as: exchange Grade of Service (GOS), route utilization, route congestion percentage, answer-to-seizure ratio (ASR), traffic intensity (in Erlangs), as well as the number of channels the infrastructure requires to conveniently carry the measured Busy Hour traffic without terminating or delaying other lines. The data is analyzed using traffic engineering schemes. Results Obtained show that in compliance with the regulator on the 10% minimum threshold of interconnect traffic that must be routed through the interconnect exchange operators, the two CHs studied were found to have adequate capacity to conveniently carry the amount of traffic being routed through them, with a GOS of 1.38% and 0.2% respectively. Hence, the authors conclude that, at the moment, the mobile operators can conveniently route 10% of their interconnect traffic through the Clearinghouses.