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 r esolve the trade-off between capacity and QoS requirements. Accurate modeli ng of the offered traffic load is the first step in optimizing resource all ocation algorithms such that provision of services compiles with the QoS co nstraints while maintaining maximum capacity. In recent years, as broadband multimedia services became popular, they necessitated new traffic models w ith self-similar characteristics. In this article we present a survey of th e serf-similarity phenomenon observed in multimedia traffic and its implica tions on network performance. Our current research aims to fill the gap bet ween this new traffic model and network engineering. An immediate consequen ce of this study is the demonstration of the limitations or validity of con ventional resource allocation methods in the presence of self-similar traff ic.