Mining Graph-Fourier Transform Time Series for Anomaly Detection of Internet Traffic at Core and Metro Networks

This article proposes a framework to analyse traffic-data processes on a long-haul backbone infrastructure network providing internet services at a national level. This type of network requires low latency and fast speed, which means there is a large demand for research focusing on near real-time decision-making and resilience assessment. To this aim, this article proposes two innovative, complementary procedures: a multi-view approach for the topology analysis of a backbone network at a static level and a time-series mining approach of the graph signal for modelling the traffic dynamics. The combined framework provides a deeper understanding of a backbone network than classical models, allowing for backbone network optimisation operations and management at near real-time. This methodology was applied to the backbone infrastructure of a major UK internet service provider. Doing so increased accuracy and computational efficiency for detecting where and when anomalies and pattern irregularities occur in the network signal.