From network measurement collection to traffic performance modeling: challenges and lessons learned

Abstract

Recent advances in network technologies have far outpaced our abilities to effectively manage and engineer them. The fundamental challenge in the traffic management of these new and emerging networks is to describe, analyze and control the complex traffic flows they carry in ways that can be applied in practice. Our approach for tackling this problem is experimental in nature and starts with collection and analysis of high-resolution traffic traces from working networks. Traffic models that can accurately and adequately describe these complex flows are devised based on the measurement analyses, which then lead to the development of appropriate and practical traffic management methods. This paper reports on our experiences in analyzing a large number of traffic traces collected from a wide range of network technologies including Ethernet, ISDN packet, CCS, Internet, Frame Relay and ATM. We first describe the challenges in collecting, mining and filtering traffic traces from high-speed networks. Lessons learned from these efforts are then reported. Specifically, we discuss the choice of traffic models and the issues of traffic characterization and performance modeling from various viewpoints: i) aggregate versus individual traffic; ii) user session versus link layer traffic; and iii) user application versus network management traffic. The discussions are given so that the appropriate traffic models can be chosen in different scenarios, and subsequent traffic management methods can be developed and applied to these high-speed networks in practice.