The impact of the flow arrival process in Internet traffic

Internet packet data is analysed to determine the relationship between the arrival process of packets, and of TCP flows of packets. Viewed as point processes, second order properties of the two processes are studied using wavelets, and each is found to have long range dependence. A new result is given directly linking flow durations to the onset scale of the long range dependence in the flow process. Using this result, a mechanism is described whereby the flow level structure could, in principle, influence the packet level structure, and it is shown and explained why this is not the case currently. The circumstances under which the flow structure could impact on the packet process, and therefore become important for the modeling of the packet level dynamics, are given.