Two Models for the Study of Congested Internet Connections

TL;DR

This paper presents two deterministic models for congested Internet connections, demonstrating improved accuracy over previous models by incorporating sudden changes to reflect packet loss, and discusses their application in network traffic estimation.

Contribution

Introduces two novel deterministic models combining differential equations and discrete steps to better simulate congestion dynamics in Internet connections.

Findings

Models show good agreement with ns network simulator

Sudden change improves accuracy in packet loss representation

Potential use in network traffic state estimation

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce two deterministic models aimed at capturing the dynamics of congested Internet connections. The first model is a continuous-time model that combines a system of differential equations with a sudden change in one of the state variables. The second model is a discrete-time model with a time step that arises naturally from the system. Results from these models show good agreement with the well-known ns network simulator, better than the results of a previous, similar model. This is due in large part to the use of the sudden change to reflect the impact of lost data packets. We also discuss the potential use of this model in network traffic state estimation.