Interpretation of losses observed on the Internet by inferring traffic characteristics

This paper applies a new methodology for analyzing and interpreting IP metrics collected by active measurement to loss traces aggregated on the Internet. This new approach is based on inferring traffic characteristics that lead to the observed loss trace based on an associated a priori constructive model. The constructive model used in this paper is an MMPP/M/1/N single server bottleneck. The originality of this solution is that we start with observed performance (or QoS) measures and derive inputs that have lead to these observations and by this way make the interpretation of the measurement feasible. This process is illustrated in the context of the modeling of the loss observed in an Internet path. It provides a powerful solution to address the complex problem of interpreting IP active measurement and network modeling.