Analysis of Non-Gaussian Nature of Network Traffic and its Implication on Network Performance

We analyzed the non-Gaussian nature of network traffic using some Internet traffic data. We found that (1) the non-Gaussian nature degrades network performance, (2) it is caused by ‘greedy flows’ that exist with non-negligible probability, and (3) a large majority of ‘greedy flows’ are TCP flows having relatively small hop counts, which correspond to small round-trip times. We conclude that in a network that has greedy flows with non-negligible probability, a traffic controlling scheme or bandwidth design that considers non-Gaussian nature is essential.