Traffic characterization of the NSFNET national backbone

ABSTRACT

Traditionally, models of packet arrival in communication networks have assumed either Poisson or compound Poisson arrival patterns. A study of a token ring local area network (LAN) at MIT [5] found that packet arrival followed neither of these models. Instead, traffic followed a more general model dubbed the “packet train,” which describes network traffic as a collection of packet streams traveling between pairs of nodes. A packet train consists of a number of packets travelling between a particular node pair. This study examines the existence of packet trains on NSFNET, a high speed national backbone network. Train characteristics on NSFNET are not as striking as those found on the MIT local network; however, certain protocols exhibit quite strong train behavior given the great number of hosts communicating through the backbone. Descriptions of the packet train model can be found in [3] and [5].

REFERENCES

• 1: D. C. Feldmeier. Empirical analysis of a token ring network. Laboratory for Computer Science Technical Memo 254, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, January 1984.
• 2: Riccardo Gusella, The Analysis of Diskless Workstation Traffic on an Ethernet, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 1987
• 3: Steven A. Iieimlich. Traffic characterization of the NSFNET national backbone, in Proceedings USENIX, January 1990.
• 4: Raj J ain. Characteristics of destination address local!t,y in computer networks: A comparison of caching schemes. Technical Report 592, Digital Equipment Corporation, Littleton, MA, February 1989.
• 5: Raj J ain and Shawn A. Routhier. Packet trainsmea.surements and a new model for computer network traffic. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, SAC 4:986-995, September 1986.
• 6: Mark J. Lorence and M. Satyanarayanan. IPwatch: a tool for monitoring network locality. In Proccedin.qs 4th Int. Conf. on Modelling T~chniques and Tools for Computer Performance Evaluation, Septernber 1988.
• 7: .iohlt Nagle. On packet switches with infinite storage. R FC* 970, Network Information Center, December 1985.
• 8: C. Song , L. H. Landweber, Optimizing bulk data transfer performance: a packet train model, Symposium proceedings on Communications architectures and protocols, p.134-145, August 16-18, 1988, Stanford, California, United States

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Network communications

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Packet-switching networks
      C.2.5 Local and Wide-Area Networks
          Subjects: Token rings
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Performance attributes

General Terms:
Design, Measurement, Performance