1.1 Introduction
Network congestion is the overcrowding of route, leading to slow and inefficient flow. It is also a situation in which the amount of information to be transferred is greater than the amount that the data communication path can carry. Network monitoring and measurement have become more and more important in a modern complicated network. In the past, administrators might only monitor a few network devices or less than a hundred computers. Several network systems are built to communicate with one another and are made available through service-oriented architectures. The network bandwidth may be just 10 or 100Mbps (Megabit per second); however, now administrators have to deal with not only higher speed wired network (more than 10Gps (Gigabit per second) network) but also wireless network.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The world is fast becoming a global village and a necessary tool for this process is communication of which telecommunication is a key player. The quantum development in the telecommunications industry all over the world is very rapid as one innovation replaces another in a matter of weeks. A major breakthrough is the wireless telephone system which comes in either fixed wireless telephone lines or the Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM). Communication without doubt is a major driver of any economy. Emerging trends in socio-economic growth shows a high premium being placed on information and communication technology (ICT) by homes, organizations, and nations. Nigeria is not left out in this race for rapid development as the nation’s economy has been subjected to years of economic reversal via mismanagement and bad leadership.
The Nigerian telecommunications sector was grossly underdeveloped before the sector was deregulated under the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida in 1992 with the establishment of a regulatory body, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). So far the NCC has issued various licenses to private telecommunications operator. These include 7 fixed telephony providers that have activated 90,000 lines, 35 Internet service providers with a customer base of about 17,000. Several VSAT service providers are in operation, and have improved financial intermediation by providing on-line banking services to most banks in Nigeria. These licenses allowed private telephone operators (PTOs), to roll out both fixed wireless telephone lines and analogue mobile phones. The return of democracy in 1999 paved the way for the granting of GSM license to 3 service providers: MTN Nigeria, ECONET Wireless Nigeria which is now called ZAIN and NITEL Plc which is now called ZOOM in 2001 and later GLO.
1.3 Statement of the Problems
Investigation revealed that calls across different networks are always difficult to connect, at times diverted and also attract more cost. This creates room for users to be confused as how much is deducted from their call credits or are compelled to having multiple GSM lines. As the network increases, more users makes call across different networks and there is need to record the call time, call network, and line identification and be able to put calls across the networks without much congestions. Transmission of calls requires at least two points, A and B (point-to-point; point-to-multipoint or multipoint-to-point).
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement an effective Network Congestion System Control that will monitor and direct the communication flows from one point to another without interference. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application software that will:
- Control the flow of networks communication without interference, signal deterioration, delay, congestion, or restriction;
- Serve as a congestion control system for multi-user telecommunication networks;
- Determine the network performance matrices of non-congested Network; and
- Allow operators to gain full interconnection to its network at technically feasible and convenient points of interconnection.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study will help us to know the status of GSM network resource allocation in Nigeria with a view to knowing areas to be addressed for better performance. This research work will aid telecommunication companies in Nigeria to achieve the following:
- The study will use Inter-switch to put calls through to the right designation without delay, distortions or diversion.
- It will maintain a database of all registered GSM lines for all GSM communication companies.
- It will keep record of calls across the GSM networks.
- It will determine the calling network and receiving network and use this information for the purpose of interconnectivity tariffs.
- Finally, the study will contribute to the body of existing literature and knowledge in this field of study and provide a basis for further research.
1.6 Scope of the study
The scope of this research is focused on the Design and Implementation of Network Congestion System Control. This research covers network connectivity and traffic control of MTN network in Nigeria. The system covers all forms of voice calls across the network. Both call identification, recording and network interconnectivity.
1.7 Limitation of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Congestion: It is the overcrowding of route, leading to slow and inefficient flow. In computing, it is a situation in which the amount of information to be transferred is greater than the amount that the data communication path can carry.
Network-Management System (NMS): A complete hardware and software system that monitors and manages a network.
Application Programming Interface: In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for building application
Basic Object Adapter: Basic Object Adapter (BOA) is an interface intended to be widely available and to support a wide variety of common object implementations.
