On multimedia networks: self-similar traffic and network performance

The main objective in telecommunications network engineering is to have as many happy users as possible. In other words, the network engineer has to resolve the trade-off between capacity and QoS requirements. Accurate modeling of the offered traffic load is the first step in optimizing resource allocation algorithms such that provision of services complies with the QoS constraints while maintaining maximum capacity. As broadband multimedia services became popular, they necessitated new traffic models with self-similar characteristics. We present a survey of the self-similarity phenomenon observed in multimedia traffic and its implications on network performance. Our current research aims to fill the gap between this new traffic model and network engineering. An immediate consequence of this study is the demonstration of the limitations or validity of conventional resource allocation methods in the presence of self-similar traffic.