A benchmark methodology for end-to-end delay of reactive mobile networks

Modern mobile communication networks handle user traffic in terms of data streams rather than single packets. Resources are allocated per stream as a reaction on its history. In particular, the network´s delay figure depends on the entire traffic pattern injected by the user. This work aims to find a comprehensive measure for the delay behavior of reactive networks. A novel measurement methodology is introduced which enables the fast assessment of the delay performance for a multitude of traffic patterns. The results are condensed to a handful of typical classes by simultaneously minimizing the loss of information. Those classes enable an intuitive representation of the network´s latency behavior. Further, they indicate which patterns are preferable for fair benchmarking. We demonstrate the practicability of the approach by benchmarking operational networks, namely, LTE (non-reactive) and HSPA (reactive). The analysis shows that the proposed method works well for both technologies, outperforming standard methods which a priori assume non-reactiveness of the network under test.