View article

In this paper, we characterize wide-area network applications that use the TCP transport protocol. We also describe a new way to model the wide-area traffic generated by a stub network. We believe the fmffic model presented here will be useful in studying congestion control, routing algorithms, and other resource management schemesfor existing and future networks. Our model is based on trace analysis of TCP/IP widearea intemetwork traffic. We collected the TCP/IP packet headers of USC, UCB, and Bellcore networks at the point they connect with their respective regional accessnetworks. We then wrote a handful of programs to analyze the traces. Our model characterizes individual TCP conversations by the distributions ofi number of bytes transfemed, duration, number of packets transferred, packet size, and packet interarrival time.

Our trace analysis shows that both interactive and bulk transfer traffic from all …