Patent ID: 7904091

Claim:
A method for predicting call blocking in a network having a plurality of geographical serving areas, the method comprising: receiving at an input signals representing originating traffic loads and call routing sequences for a plurality of geographical serving areas; calculating, by a computing device, respective blocking metrics for the geographical serving areas based on the originating traffic loads and the call routing sequences for directed retry specified for the geographical serving areas including intermediate calculations of an effective load and blocking per sector, including accounting for correlations of effective loads offered to neighboring sectors as a result of a call blocked by a serving sector or cell of its initial attempt being redirected to one or more alternative sectors or cells that are also accessible to the call; the calculating respective blocking metrics comprising iteratively solving an equation set based at least in part on the call routing sequence such that the iteratively solving converges to a solution or to a value bound by upper and lower limits; and calculating at the computing device an overall blocking metric for the network based on the originating traffic loads and the respective blocking metrics for the geographical serving areas.