Power-law vs exponential queueing in a network traffic model

  • Authors:
  • Konstantinos P. Tsoukatos;Armand M. Makowski

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Communications and Computer Engineering, University of Thessaly, Gklavani 37, Volos 38221, Greece;Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States

  • Venue:
  • Performance Evaluation
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

We examine the impact of network traffic dependencies on queueing performance in the context of a popular stochastic model, namely the infinite capacity discrete-time queue with deterministic service rate and M|G|~ arrival process. We propose approximations to the stationary queue size distribution which are generated by interpolating between heavy and light traffic extremes. This is done under both long- and short-range dependent network traffic. Under long-range dependence, the heavy traffic results can be expressed in terms of Mittag-Leffler special functions which generalize the exponential distribution and yet display power-law decay. Numerical results from exact expressions (when available), approximations and simulations support the following conclusions: Network traffic dependencies need to be carefully accounted for, but whether this is accomplished through a short- or long-range dependent stochastic model bears little impact on queueing performance. The differences between exponential and power-law queueing are negligible at the ''head'' of the distribution, and manifest themselves only for large buffers.