An Information Theoretic Approach for the Performance Modeling and Evaluation of Internet Traffic

The information theoretic principles of Maximum Entropy (ME) and Minimum Relative Entropy (MRE) are employed, as least-biased methods of inference, towards the analysis of a Internet link carrying realistic TCP traffic, produced by a large number of connections. The analytic approximations are validated against exhaustive simulation experiments. Despite its simplicity, the methodology captures the behavior of the system under study both in the cases of finite and infinite buffers and finally suggests a more elaborate but still cost effective approach even for the analysis of networks of Internet links. This approach can easily be utilized for network management and design, capacity planning, and congestion control.