Modeling and simulation of broadband satellite networks - Part II: Trafficmodeling

Traffic models for satellite network simulation must cover a broad range of traffic types and characteristics because the type of users/terminals that will access a satellite channel will range from a single home user (low tr affic aggregation) to Internet backbone nodes (very high traffic aggregatio n). In addition, since satellite resources are generally considered more sc arce than their fiber counterparts, the accuracy and practicality of traffi c models play a crucial role. We address these challenges by identifying th ree traffic modeling areas for satellite network simulation, and propose an effective and flexible traffic model for each area: a discrete autoregress ive process for MBone video source modeling; the superposition of fractal r enewal processes (Sup-FRP) model for Web request arrivals; and a generalize d shot-noise-driven Poisson point process (GSNDP) for aggregate traffic flo ws modeling. The efficacy of the first two models is demonstrated based on statistical analysis of various video and Web traces. These simulation-orie nted models provide accurate descriptions of source traffic at various leve ls of traffic aggregation, and thus enable satellite network researchers an d practitioners to understand key network design and engineering issues suc h as QoS provisioning based on simulation.