Modeling the burstiness of TCP

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the most widely used transport protocol on the Internet. We investigate the burstiness of TCP and its impact on a network of finite TCP connections. A detailed TCP and network model is developed to quantify both the burstiness and throughput of TCP connections sharing a single bottleneck router. The range of parameters which are most important when considering burstiness are investigated. We find that, under high loads, the burstiness of the TCP protocol becomes a less significant performance factor. Extensive simulation is then used to validate our model over a wide range of parameters.