Modeling E-Mail Traffic for 3G Mobile Networks

Traffic models are to provision the increasing load of packet switched traffic in mobile 3G networks. However, most traffic models were designed to fit the need of low delay wired connections. In this paper we propose a new traffic model for POP3 e-mail traffic generation in 3G mobile networks scenarios. The model is based on traces which were extracted in a live 3G network of a mobile operator. The main improvement of the model is the explicit modeling of the login process that takes place between the client and the server. We implemented the model in the network simulation tool ns-2 and based on this we simulated various scenarios to visualize the impact of a leading initialisation phase in high RTT environments. The results proof that the extension can reproduce the effect from the login in a more precise way. Finally a comparison between the measured and the simulated service footprints were compared. The new model performs better than common models in this scenario.