Traffic congestion measurements in transit IP networks

Abstract

Transit IP internetworks supporting USAF bases are highly congested during duty-hours and attempts to access to the Internet often fail. Often, during these connection failures, transit networks are in a state known as congestion collapse and connections time out when a user attempts to reach the Internet. This paper presents the results of a simple IP congestion analysis between four USAF bases and the Internet, graphically illustrating the congestion domains. We demonstrate that congestion in DISN links are primarily responsible for the congestion collapse. A skeleton framework for creating similar tests is included and suggestions for improvements to the simple test script are provided.