Explorative analysis of one-way delays in a mobile 3G network

In this paper we investigate the dynamics of one-way delays in an operational mobile core network. Our final goal is to develop anomaly detection schemes for the packet delay process in order to reveal network and equipment problems. This requires a preliminary exploration of the delay distribution in the core network, which we undertake in this study. We present one-way delay measurements extracted from passive traces captured at an operational General Packet Radio System (GPRS)/Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network. We find that queuing is the only source of delay at Gateway GPRS Support Nodes (GGSN), while for Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN) the mobility and flow-control further complicate the characterization of the ldquonormalrdquo delay behavior. Moreover, the presence of unwanted traffic has an impact on the delay statistics and should be taken into account. We find that information about actual bandwidth conditions in the Radio Network may be inferred by investigating packet delays in the core network. Our explorative results are promising about the possibility of leveraging one-way delay measurement for troubleshooting in such networks.