Using LiTGen, a realistic IP traffic model, to evaluate the impact of burstiness on performance

For practical reasons, network simulators have to be designed on traffic models as realistic as possible. This paper presents the evaluation of LiTGen, a realistic IP traffic model, for the generation of IP traffic with accurate time scale properties and performance. We confront LiTGen against real data traces1 using two methods of evaluation. These methods respectively allow to observe the causes and consequences of the traffic burstiness. Using a wavelet spectrum analysis, we first highlight the intrinsic characteristics of the traffic and show LiTGen’s ability to reproduce accurately the captured traffic correlation structures over a wide range of timescales. Then, a performance analysis based on simulations quantifies the impact of these characteristics on a simple queuing system, and demonstrates LiTGen’s ability to generate synthetic traffic leading to realistic performance. Finally, we conduct an investigation for a possible model reduction using memoryless assumptions.