Teletraffic engineering in broadband networks

Teletraffic engineering is a well-understood discipline in the traditional voice network, where traffic patterns are established, growth rates can be predicted, and vast amounts of detailed historical data are available for analysis. However, for modern broadband networks, the teletraffic engineering methodologies used for voice networks no longer suffice. Various aspects relating to teletraffic engineering in broadband networks are discussed in this article.

Firstly, the nature of broadband traffic is different from that of traditional voice networks. Many of the methodologies developed for traditional networks were based on the nature of voice calls, and are therefore not applicable to broadband networks. The nature of broadband traffic (broadband traffic characteristics) is discussed in the following sub-section.

The inherent nature of broadband networks is also different from that of traditional voice networks. Broadband networks have:

* high speeds,
* small cell sizes (in ATM networks), and
* limited information in the header.

These factors make teletraffic engineering in broadband networks more difficult than in traditional voice networks. A few more factors that further complicate teletraffic engineering in broadband networks are:

* A wide range of applications with diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements must be catered for.
* Much of the traffic (e.g., voice, video) is not amendable to flow control.
* The feedback within the network is “slow”.
* There are a large variety of traffic patterns (see long-tail traffic).

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