Modeling Local Area Network Traffic with Markovian Traffic Models

In this work, we assess the suitability of some Markovian models and their associated fitting procedures to describe IP traffic exhibiting long-range dependence. We resort to traffic traces measured at the Institute of Telecommunications – Aveiro Pole. The models under analysis are special cases of Markov Modulated Poisson Processes (MMPPs): 2-MMPP, CMPP (Circulant Markov Poisson Process) and (2 ⊕ M/2)MMPP. These models are evaluated by comparing the density function, the autocovariance and the loss rate queuing behavior of the measured traces and of traces generated from the fitted models. Results show a good agreement for both the CMPP and (2 ⊕ M/2)-MMPP but a reasonable mismatch for the 2-MMPP model.