Traffic models in broadband networks

Traffic models are at the heart of any performance evaluation of telecommunications networks. An accurate estimation of network performance is critical for the success of broadband networks. Such networks need to guarantee an acceptable quality of service (QoS) level to the users. Therefore, traffic models need to be accurate and able to capture the statistical characteristics of the actual traffic. In this article we survey and examine traffic models that are currently used in the literature. Traditional short-range and non-traditional long-range dependent traffic models are presented. Number of parameters needed, parameter estimation, analytical tractability, and ability of traffic models to capture marginal distribution and auto-correlation structure of actual traffic are discussed.