Tuning Self-Similar Traffic to Improve Loss Performance in Small Buffer Routers

The issue of router buffer sizing is an important research problem and is still open though researchers have debated this for many years. The research method can be classified into two kinds: one is based on queuing theory, the other uses TCP as model. From the point of TCP model, many researchers concluded that buffer size can be significantly reduced. It's desirable that the buffers are so small that fast memory technology and all-optical buffering can be used. But queuing model with self-similar incoming traffic suggested that extremely large buffers are needed to achieve acceptable packet loss rate. In this paper, we will first exam the performance of non-TCP and self-similar traffic with small router buffers, and then address the question how to improve the packet loss rate performance for self-similar traffic. Through a combination of simulation and analysis, we found that packet arrivals' burstiness has a significant influence on loss rate performance. We further point out a simple and effective approach, which smoothes the packet injections to the network, to improve the performance of small buffers at Internet core router for self-similar traffic.