Survey on Traffic of Metro Area Network with Measurement On-Line

Network traffic measurements can provide essential data for network research and operation. While Internet traffic has been heavily studied for several years, there are new characteristics of traffic having not been understood well brought by new applications for example P2P. It is difficult to get these traffic metrics due to the difficulty to measurement traffic on line for high speed link and to identify new applications using dynamic ports. In this paper, we present a broad overview of Internet traffic of an operated OC-48 export link of a metro area network from a carrier with the method of measurement on-line. The traffic behaves a daily characteristic well and the traffic data of whole day from data link layer to application layer is presented. We find the characteristics of traffic have changed greatly from previous measurements. Also, we explain the reasons bringing out these changes. Our goal is to provide the first hand of traffic data that is helpful for people to understand the change of traffic with new applications.