An empirical model of HTTP network traffic

Abstract

The workload of the global Internet is dominated by the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), an application protocol used by World Wide Web clients and servers. Simulation studies of IP networks require a model of the traffic patterns of the World Wide Web, in order to investigate the effects of this increasingly popular application. We have developed an empirical model of network traffic produced by HTTP. Instead of relying on server or client logs, our approach is based on packet traces of HTTP conversations. Through traffic analysis, we have determined statistics and distributions for higher-level quantities such as the size of HTTP files, the number of files per "Web page", and user browsing behavior. These quantities form a model can then be used by simulations to mimic World Wide Web network applications.