Managing the Bursty Nature of Packet Traffic using the BPTraSha Algorithm

The rapid development of network technologies has widened the scope of Internet applications and, in turn, increased both Internet traffic and the need for its accurate measurement, modelling and control. Various researchers have reported that traffic measurements demonstrate considerable burstiness on several time scales, with properties of self-similarity. The self-similar nature of this data traffic may exhibit spikiness and burstiness on large scales with such behaviour being caused by strong dependence characteristics in data: that is, large values tend to come in clusters and clusters of clusters and so on. Several studies have shown that TCP, the dominant network (Internet) transport protocol, contributes to the propagation of self-similarity. Bursty traffic can affect the Quality of Service of all traffic on the network by introducing inconsistent latency. It is easier to manage the workloads under less bursty (i.e. smoother) conditions. In this paper, we examine the use of a novel algorithm, the Bursty Packet Traffic Shaper (BPTraSha), for traffic shaping, which can smooth out the traffic burstiness. Experimental results show that this approach allows significant traffic control by smoothing the incoming traffic. BPTraSha can be implemented on the distribution router buffer so that the traffic’s bursty nature can be modified before it is transmitted over the core network

Traffic measurement and analysis

Measurement and analysis of real traffic is important to gain knowledge about the characteristics of the traffic. Without measurement, it is impossible to build realistic traffic models. It is recent that data traffic was found to have self-similar properties. In this thesis work traffic captured on the network at SICS and on the Supernet, is shown to have this fractal-like behaviour. The traffic is also examined with respect to which protocols and packet sizes are present and in what proportions. In the SICS trace most packets are small, TCP is shown to be the predominant transport protocol and NNTP the most common application. In contrast to this, large UDP packets sent between not well-known ports dominates the Supernet traffic. Finally, characteristics of the client side of the WWW traffic are examined more closely. In order to extract useful information from the packet trace, web browsers use of TCP and HTTP is investigated including new features in HTTP/1.1 such as persistent connections and pipelining. Empirical probability distributions are derived describing session lengths, time between user clicks and the amount of data transferred due to a single user click. These probability distributions make up a simple model of WWW-sessions

Network effects of intelligent speed adaptation systems

Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) systems use in-vehicle electronic devices to enable the speed of vehicles to be regulated externally. They are increasingly appreciated as a flexible method for speed management and control, particularly in urban areas. On-road trials using a small numbers of ISA equipped vehicles have been carried out in Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. This paper describes the developments made to enhance a traffic microsimulation model in order to represent ISA implemented across a network and their impact on the networks. The simulation modelling of the control system is carried out on a real-world urban network, and the impacts on traffic congestion, speed distribution and the environment assessed. The results show that ISA systems are more effective in less congested traffic conditions. Momentary high speeds in traffic are effectively suppressed, resulting in a reduction in speed variation which is likely to have a positive impact on safety. Whilst ISA reduces excessive traffic speeds in the network, it does not affect average journey times. In particular, the total vehicle-hours travelling at speeds below 10 km/hr have not changed, indicating that the speed control had not induced more slow-moving queues to the network. A significant, eight percent, reduction in fuel consumption was found with full ISA penetration. These results are in accordance with those from field trials and they provide the basis for cost-benefit analyses on introducing ISA into the vehicle fleet. Contrary to earlier findings from the Swedish ISA road trials, these network simulations showed that ISA had no significant effect on emission of gaseous pollutants CO, NOx and HC. Further research is planned to investigate the impact on emission with a more comprehensive and up to date modal emission factor database

An improved multi-agent simulation methodology for modelling and evaluating wireless communication systems resource allocation algorithms

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) constitute a well known approach in modelling dynamical real world systems. Recently, this technology has been applied to Wireless Communication Systems (WCS), where efficient resource allocation is a primary goal, for modelling the physical entities involved, like Base Stations (BS), service providers and network operators. This paper presents a novel approach in applying MAS methodology to WCS resource allocation by modelling more abstract entities involved in WCS operation, and especially the concurrent network procedures (services). Due to the concurrent nature of a WCS, MAS technology presents a suitable modelling solution. Services such as new call admission, handoff, user movement and call termination are independent to one another and may occur at the same time for many different users in the network. Thus, the required network procedures for supporting the above services act autonomously, interact with the network environment (gather information such as interference conditions), take decisions (e.g. call establishment), etc, and can be modelled as agents. Based on this novel simulation approach, the agent cooperation in terms of negotiation and agreement becomes a critical issue. To this end, two negotiation strategies are presented and evaluated in this research effort and among them the distributed negotiation and communication scheme between network agents is presented to be highly efficient in terms of network performance. The multi-agent concept adapted to the concurrent nature of large scale WCS is, also, discussed in this paper