An Empirical Workload Model for Driving Wide-Area TCP/IP Network Simulations

Abstract

We present an artificial workload model of wide-area internetwork traffic. The model can be used to drive simulation experiments of communication protocols and flow and congestion control experiments. The model is based on analysis of wide-area TCP/IP traffic collected from one industrial and two academic networks. The artificial workload model uses both detailed knowledge and measured characteristics of the user application programs responsible for the traffic. Observations drawn from our measurements contradict some commonly held beliefs regarding wide-area TCP/IP network traffic.