Spatial and temporal behavior of congestion in internet traffic

We have developed an approach which allows the determination of relative congestion levels on nodes of TCP/IP computer network by observing test packet round trip time sequences for a series of routers located along the same path. We have also demonstrated the existence of strong spatial correlation of congestion levels. Propagation of congestion between neighboring routers can be observed directly. With increasing network load, distribution of congestion duration times changes from exponential to a distribution falling off slower than power law, via power law distribution. We thus conclude that direct observations of network congestion agree with predictions of a model based on contact process.