The estimation of stable distribution parameters from teletraffic data

This article is concerned with the estimation of the parameters that describe a stable distribution from teletraffic data. Stable distributions are characterized by four parameters that can be estimated using a number of methods. This article provides an introduction to the stable distribution and a summary of some of the estimation techniques developed for them. It presents a comprehensive performance comparison between four techniques and a study of how these techniques can be applied to real data. The data under consideration is that expected on broadband digital networks.