International roaming traffic optimization with call quality

Abstract

In this study we focus on a Steering International Roaming Traffic (SIRT) problem with single service that concerns a telecommunication’s operators’ agreements with other operators in order to enable subscribers access services, without interruption, when they are out of operators’ coverage area. In these agreements, a subscriber’s call from abroad is steered to partner operator. The decision for which each call will be forwarded to the partner is based on the user’s location (country/city), price of the partner operator for that location and the service quality of partner operator. We develop an optimization model that considers agreement constraints and quality requirements while satisfying subscribers demand over a predetermined time interval. We test the performance of the proposed approach using different execution policies such as running the model once and fixing the roaming decisions over the planning interval or dynamically updating the decisions using a rolling horizon approach. We present a rigorous trade off analysis that aims to help the decision maker in assessing the relative importance of cost, quality and ease of implementation. Our results show that steering cost is decreased by approximately 25% and operator mistakes are avoided with the developed optimization model while the quality of the steered calls is kept above the base quality level.