Cell Relay Archive

[ntwk@netcom.com (Network Synthesis)]

H.M.Chen (H.M.Chen@durham.ac.uk) wrote:
: Dear netters,

:   Does anybody know about "self-similar traffic model"? If you know 
: something about it, please tell me or give me some references. 

:   Thanks in advance.

: --
: ---------------------------------------------------------------------
: Fred H.-M. Chen   Univ. of Durham   e-mail: H.M.Chen@durham.ac.uk 
: School of Engineering, South Rd., Durham DH1 3LE, England
: Tel: +44-191-374-2559    FAX: +44-191-374-3838




A short summary of this property is that data traffic
follows the human activity of the users.  Since human activity
has weeks, months, and years long cycles, the data traffic produced by 
that activity has weeks, months, and years long cycles.

To carry this farther, in order to understand the behavior of
computer networks, you need to understand how and why people use
those networks.  In order to understand how and why people use
computer networks, you have to understand people.  Because of this,
when using self-similar models of data traffic, you should 
understand and acknowledge that the models are not models of 
collections of machines but instead are models of people 
interacting with computers and each other.

This is a subtle but potentially important distinction.  When you
are modeling something, it helps if you know what you are modeling.
A self-similar traffic model is really a model of the people in a
workgroup, department, company, or nation using their computers to 
finish a project, close the books, make a profit, or get their
taxes in by April 15th.  The accuracy of such a model depends on its
ability to reflect the possibilities and probabilities of human behavior.

  Brian Holden  Integrated Telecom/Network Synthesis  ntwk@netcom.com