A Microscopic Model for Packet Transport in the Internet

Abstract

A microscopic description of packet transport in the Internet by using a simple cellular automaton model is presented. A generalised exclusion process is introduced which allows to study travel times of the particles ('data packets') along a fixed path in the network. Computer simulations reveal the appearance of a free flow and a jammed phase separated by a (critical) transition regime. The power spectra are compared to empirical data for the RTT (Round Trip Time) obtained from measurements in the Internet. We find that the model is able to reproduce the characteristic statistical behaviour in agreement with the empirical data for both phases (free flow and congested). The phases are therefore jamming properties and not related to the structure of the network. Moreover the model shows, as observed in reality, critical behaviour (1/f-noise) for paths with critical load.

9 pages, 7 figures

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Congestion and centrality in traffic flow on complex networks
• Phase transition in a directed traffic flow network
• Unraveling the structure of treelike networks from first-passage times of lazy random walkers
• The asymmetric simple exclusion process on chains with a shortcut revisited
• Centralities for Networks with Consumable Resources
• Temporal Diffusion
• New approach for network monitoring and intrusion detection
• Analysis of Network Traffic in Switched Ethernet Systems