Flow-level upstream traffic behavior in broadband access networks: DSL versus broadband fixed wireless

We present flow-level upstream traffic behavior based on data collected from broadband fixed wireless (BFW) and digital subscriber line (DSL) access services. The study involves data collected using Cisco's NetFlow tools on both access networks. The observations indicate that a number of applications based on peer-to-peer (P2P) concepts create most of the upstream traffic. The flows observed are mostly short-lived for both BFW and DSL access, with DSL being the lesser of the two. The inter-arrival time displays near-range correlation for the DSL flows. There is a significant periodicity observed in the interarrival time distribution for flows on BFW access, which is indicative of the influence of the underlying medium access control (MAC) protocol on traffic behavior. These analysis of upstream traffic characteristics form the first step towards constructing a generalized parametric model for broadband access networks.