Accuracy of TCP performance models

Hans Peter Schwefel; Manfred Jobmann; Daniel Hoellisch; Daniel P. Heyman

doi:10.1117/12.434338

24 July 2001 Accuracy of TCP performance models

Hans Peter Schwefel, Manfred Jobmann, Daniel Hoellisch, Daniel P. Heyman

Proceedings Volume 4523, Internet Performance and Control of Network Systems II; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.434338
Event: ITCom 2001: International Symposium on the Convergence of IT and Communications, 2001, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

Despite the fact that most of todays' Internet traffic is transmitted via the TCP protocol, the performance behavior of networks with TCP traffic is still not well understood. Recent research activities have lead to a number of performance models for TCP traffic, but the degree of accuracy of these models in realistic scenarios is still questionable. This paper provides a comparison of the results (in terms of average throughput per connection) of three different `analytic' TCP models: I. the throughput formula in [Padhye et al. 98], II. the modified Engset model of [Heyman et al. 97], and III. the analytic TCP queueing model of [Schwefel 01] that is a packet based extension of (II). Results for all three models are computed for a scenario of $N$ identical TCP sources that transmit data in individual TCP connections of stochastically varying size. The results for the average throughput per connection in the analytic models are compared with simulations of detailed TCP behavior. All of the analytic models are expected to show deficiencies in certain scenarios, since they neglect highly influential parameters of the actual real simulation model: The approach of Model (I) and (II) only indirectly considers queueing in bottleneck routers, and in certain scenarios those models are not able to adequately describe the impact of buffer-space, neither qualitatively nor quantitatively. Furthermore, (II) is insensitive to the actual distribution of the connection sizes. As a consequence, their prediction would also be insensitive of so-called long-range dependent properties in the traffic that are caused by heavy-tailed connection size distributions. The simulation results show that such properties cannot be neglected for certain network topologies: LRD properties can even have counter-intuitive impact on the average goodput, namely the goodput can be higher for small buffer-sizes.

Citation Download Citation

Hans Peter Schwefel, Manfred Jobmann, Daniel Hoellisch, and Daniel P. Heyman "Accuracy of TCP performance models", Proc. SPIE 4523, Internet Performance and Control of Network Systems II, (24 July 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.434338

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available