Tcp Traac Is Multifractal: a Numerical Study

The apparent fractal properties of TCP data tra c have recently attracted con siderable interest Most prominently fractional Brownian motion FBM has been used to model the long range dependence of tra c traces through self similarity Tra c being by nature a process of positive increments though a multifractal ap proach appears more natural In this study various traces of TCP tra c have been analyzed from both points of view Though evidence for statistical self similarity is present in certain aspects of the tra c the multifractal scaling behavior is much more convincing Furthermore crucial LAN speci c characteristics of data tra c are revealed by the multifractal analysis MA only TCP tra c at Berkeley and at CNET e g looks entirely di erent from a multifractal point of view while showing about the same self similarity parameter H As a further example MA suggests that L evy stable motion is in certain situations a more accurate model than FBM In conclusion to consider tra c traces as multifractal random measures rather than as monofractal self similar processes is not only more natural but has also various numerical advantages A novel approach to queueing supports this conclusion