Hurst parameter estimation and characteristics analysis of aggregate wireless LAN traffic

In this paper, three statistical analysis methods, R/S statistic, variance-time plots and periodogram-based analysis, are applied to the Hurst parameter estimation of the self-similar wireless LAN (WLAN) traffic. The statistical characteristics of the aggregate multiple input self-similar traffic sources at the WLAN access point (AP) are studied. Simulation results compare the Hurst parameter estimation values of self-similar WLAN traffic by utilizing the above three statistical approaches. Furthermore, theoretical analyses and simulation results demonstrate that the aggregate traffic at the WLAN AP also exhibits self-similarity, which actually intensifies rather than diminishes burstiness. The burstiness of traffic has detrimental effects on the network performance. Thus, these results can be very useful for the performance improvement and the system design optimization of WLAN.