Section: Research Program

Traffic and network architecture modeling

One needs good and realistic models of communication scenarios in order to provide pertinent performance evaluation of protocols. The models must assess the following key points:

• The architecture and topology: the way the nodes are structured within the network

• The mobility: the way the nodes move

• The dynamics: the way the nodes change status

• The traffic: the way the nodes communicate

For the architecture there are several scales. At the internet scale it is important to identify the patterns which dictate the node arrangement. For example the internet topology involves many power law distribution in node degree, link capacities, round trip delays. These parameters have a strong impact in the performance of the global network. At a smaller scale there is also the question how the nodes are connected in a wireless network. There is a significant difference between indoor and outdoor networks. The two kinds of networks differ on wave propagation. In indoor networks, the obstacles such as walls, furniture, etc, are the main source of signal attenuations. In outdoor networks the main source of signal attenuation is the distance to the emitter. This lead to very different models which vary between the random graph model for indoor networks to the unit graph model for outdoor networks.

The mobility model is very important for wireless network. The way nodes move may impact the performance of the network. For example it determines when the network splits in distinct connected components or when these components merge. With random graph models, the mobility model can be limited to the definition of a link status holding time. With unit disk model the mobility model will be defined according to random speed and direction during random times or random distances. There are some minor complications on the border of the map.

The node dynamic addresses the elements that change inside the node. For example its autonomy, its bandwidth requirement, the status of server, client, etc. Pair to pair networks involve a large class of users who frequently change status. In a mobile ad hoc network, nodes may change status just by entering or leaving the coverage area.

The traffic model is very most important. There are plenty of literature about trafic models which arose when Poisson models was shown not to be accurate for real traffics, on web or on local area networks. Natural traffic shows long range dependencies that do not exist in Poisson traffic. There are still strong issues about the origin of this long range dependencies which are debated, however they have a great impact on network performance since congestions are more frequent. The origin are either from the distribution of file sizes exchanged over the net, or from the protocols used to exchange them. One way to model the various size is to consider on/off sources. Every time a node is on it transfers a file of various size. The TCP protocol has also an impact since it keeps a memory on the network traffic. One way to describe it is to use an on/off model (a source sending packets in transmission windows) and to look at the superposition of these on/off sources.