LAN traffic analysis and workload characterization

The results of a LAN traffic analysis are studied in order to characterize the workload in a typical Ethernet environment and to examine the mathematical modeling assumptions that are made regarding packet arrivals, packet size distributions, and user access patterns. These results show that the packet size distribution is application dependent and may not always follow a bimodal pattern. The overall packet arrival distribution is not Poisson, as is generally assumed, and is directly related to the network load. During the heavy load hours, the packet arrival process is strictly Poisson. On the other hand, during the light load periods, the hypothesis that the arrival process is Poisson is statistically rejected.<>