Call volume (telecommunications)


In telecommunications, call volume refers to the number of telephone calls made during a certain time period. Depending on context, the phrase may refer to either the number of calls made to a specific physical area or telephone number or the number of calls made between two or more areas.
Calls Per Second or CPS refers to how many telephone calls can be handled in a second.
CPS is one measure of the performance of Switching systems. It helps in estimating Busy-hour call attempts and Busy-hour call completion of Switching systems.
Various formulas exist to forecast the number of calls that might be made; another key distinction concerns whether long or short-term trends are to be predicted.

Forecast Formulas

Perhaps the simplest formula used to forecast call volume is the linear equation
where y is the expected call volume, x is time, and m and b are constants.
However, this is suitable for long-term trends only, and further assumes that growth will be linear. Another formula, seen in a mathematics textbook, is the inverse square equation
where C is the number of expected calls between two cities, P1 is the population of the first city, P2 is the population of the other city, and d is the distance between them.