Periodicity in TCP session arrivals in broadband fixed wireless access networks

In this work we study the behavior of uplink traffic in a broadband fixed wireless (BFW) access network based on empirical data measurements. We observe strong periodicity in the TCP session arrival process at time scales of the order of several seconds; consistent in four different markets serviced by a large ISP that provides BFW service. We also investigate the impact of the periodic behavior on the performance of the network. We find that increasing the buffer size at the access would help dampen the periodic behavior and therefore marginalize these effects. The study of the proprietary MAC forms the first step toward investigating the mechanisms in the IEEE 802.16 standard MAC protocol that might lead to similar TCP session behavior.