Novel models of broadband traffic

We provide models which are capable of describing the long term correlations and self similar burstiness structure found in recent measurements of packet networks and VBR video. Two families of “fractal” arrival processes are presented which capture these features extremely compactly. We show the equivalence of one of these to processes with unsummable auto-correlation functions used by Leyland, Taqqu, Wilinger and Wilson (1993) to describe long term correlation and burstiness. Our approach however has advantages. The other (1 parameter) family generates burstiness on all time scales. It shows how blocking can occur even for arrival streams with zero arrival rate. This illustrates how parameters describing scaling of burstiness and correlation must replace useless long terms averages