Traffic generation model

Traffic generation model

A traffic generation model is a stochastic model of the traffic flows or data sources in a communication network,
for example a cellular network or a computer network. A packet generation model is a traffic generation model of
the packet flows or data sources in a packet-switched network. For example, a web traffic model is a model of the
data that is sent or received by a user's web-browser. These models are useful during the development of
telecommunication technologies, in view to analyse the performance and capacity of various protocols, algorithms
and network topologies.

Application
The network performance can be analysed by network traffic measurement in a testbed network, using a network
traffic generator such as iperf, bwping and Mausezahn. The traffic generator sends dummy packets, often with a
unique packet identifier, making it possible to keep track of the packet delivery in the network.
Numerical analysis using network simulation is often a less expensive approach.
An analytical approach using queueing theory may be possible for simplified traffic model, but is often too
complicated if a realistic traffic model is used.

The greedy source model

A simplified packet data model is the greedy source model. It may be useful in analyzing the maximum throughput
for best-effort traffic (without any quality-of-service guarantees). Many traffic generators are greedy sources.

Poisson traffic model

Another simplified traditional traffic generation model for circuit-switched data as well as packet data, is the Poisson
process, where the number of incoming packets or calls per time unit follows the Poisson distribution. The length of
each phone call is typically modelled as an exponential distribution. The number of simultaneously ongoing phone
calls follows the Erlang distribution.

Long-tail traffic models

However, the Poisson traffic model is memoryless, which means that is does not reflect the bursty nature of packet
data, also known as the long-range dependency. For a more realistic model, a self-similar process such as the Pareto
distribution can be used as a long-tail traffic model.

Payload data model

The actual content of the payload data is typically not modelled, but replaced by dummy packets. However, if the
payload data is to be analyzed on the receiver side, for example regarding bit-error rate, a Bernoulli process is often
assumed, i.e. a random sequence of independent binary numbers. In this case a channel model reflects channel
impairments such as noise, interference and distortion.

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Standardized Internet traffic models

There are at least two standardized traffic generation models for packet-switched wireless networks: the 3GPP2
model and the 802.16 model. The 3GPP2 model is much more complex to implement but it is supposed to give more
precise results. The 802.16 model is much simpler in realization.

3GPP2 model
The 3GPP2 model is described in.[1] This document describes the following types of traffic generators:
Downlink:
HTTP/TCP
FTP/TCP
Wireless Application Protocol
near real-time Video
Voice
Uplink:
HTTP/TCP
FTP/TCP
Wireless Application Protocol
Voice
Mobile Network Gaming
The main idea is to partly implement HTTP, FTP and TCP protocols. For example, an HTTP traffic generator
simulates the download of a web-page, consisting of a number of small objects (like images). A TCP stream (that's
why TCP generator is a must in this model) is used to download these objects according to HTTP1.0 or HTTP1.1
specifications. These models take into account the details of these protocols' work. The Voice, WAP and Mobile
Network Gaming are modelled in a less complicated way.

802.16 model
The 802.16 model is much simpler. It was proposed in several 802.16 TG3 contributions.[2] The idea is to define
three basic models:

Interrupted Poisson Process (IPP)

Interrupted Discreet Process (IDP)
Interrupted Renewal Process (IRP)
Virtual Private Network (vps)

and mix them together in order to simulate different kinds of web-traffic. Every interrupted process may be either in
ON or OFF state. The packets are generated only in ON state. The lengths of ON and OFF periods, sizes of the
packets and intervals between them are defined separately in each model, so these models differ in the way their
parameters are defined. These models may be mixed together, for example: 4IPP means a mix of four IPP flows with
different parameters. HTTP and FTP is simulated as 4IPP; VoIP is simulated as IDP, 2IDP, 4IDP; Video is simulated
as 2IRP.Wikipedia:Citation needed

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References
[1] CDMA2000 Evaluation Methodology Version 1.0 (Revision 0) (http:/ / www. 3gpp2. org/ Public_html/ specs/ C. R1002-0_v1. 0_041221.
pdf)
[2] 802.16 TG3 contributions (http:/ / www. wirelessman. org/ tg3/ contrib/ )

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Traffic generation model Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=583693940 Contributors: Anna Lincoln, Bluezy, Chairman S., Deville, Edward, Erast, Fariba.osali, Gareth Jones,
Garion96, HirenSakhiya, Isheden, Let4time, Lightdarkness, LilHelpa, Mange01, Materialscientist, Nen, Phantom784, R'n'B, Setomorp, Shunpiker, Sietse Snel, Steven.dai, 8 anonymous edits

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