A distinguishing assumption behind the Erlang B formula is that there is no queue, so that if all service elements are already in use then a newly arriving call will be blocked and subsequently lost. The formula gives the probability of this occurring. In contrast, the Erlang C formula provides for the possibility of an unlimited queue and it gives the probability that a new call will need to wait in the queue due to all servers being in use. Erlang's formulae apply quite widely, but they may fail when congestion is especially high causing unsuccessful traffic to repeatedly retry. One way of accounting for retries when no queue is available is the Extended Erlang B method.
A distinguishing assumption behind the Erlang B formula is that there is no queue, so that if all service elements are already in use then a newly arriving call will be blocked and subsequently lost The formula gives the probability of this occurring. In contrast the Erlang C formula provides for the possibility of an unlimited queue and it gives the probability that a new call will need to wait in the queue due to all servers being in use. Erlang's formulae apply quite widely, but they may fail when congestion is especially high causing unsuccessful traffic to repeatedly retry. One way of accounting for retries when no queue is available is the Extended Erlang B method.