Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics Using System Identification

Similar documents
IEICE TRANS. COMMUN., VOL.E85 B, NO.1 JANUARY

Modeling End-to-End Packet Delay Dynamics of the Internet using System Identification

Stability Analysis of a Window-based Flow Control Mechanism for TCP Connections with Different Propagation Delays

A CONTROL THEORETICAL APPROACH TO A WINDOW-BASED FLOW CONTROL MECHANISM WITH EXPLICIT CONGESTION NOTIFICATION

Analysis of a Window-Based Flow Control Mechanism based on TCP Vegas in Heterogeneous Network Environment Keiichi Takagaki Hiroyuki Ohsaki

Scalable IP-VPN Flow Control Mechanism Supporting Arbitrary Fairness Criteria Part 2: Simulation and Implementation

Congestion Propagation among Routers in the Internet

Congestion control mechanism of TCP for achieving predictable throughput

A transport-layer approach for achieving predictable throughput for Internet applications

Designing Efficient Explicit-Rate Switch Algorithm with Max-Min Fairness for ABR Service Class in ATM Networks

On Network Dimensioning Approach for the Internet

Improving TCP Performance over Wireless Networks using Loss Predictors

Problem Set 7 Due: Start of Class, November 2

Problems of IP. Unreliable connectionless service. Cannot acquire status information from routers and other hosts

A New Available Bandwidth Measurement Technique for Service Overlay Networks

Performance Analysis of Routing Techniques in Networks

Steady State Analysis of the RED Gateway: Stability, Transient Behavior, and Parameter Setting

An Improvement of TCP Downstream Between Heterogeneous Terminals in an Infrastructure Network

Your Name: Your student ID number:

ECE 697J Advanced Topics in Computer Networks

Impact of End-to-end QoS Connectivity on the Performance of Remote Wireless Local Networks

TCP Throughput Analysis with Variable Packet Loss Probability for Improving Fairness among Long/Short-lived TCP Connections

Comparing TCP Congestion Control Algorithms Based on Passively Collected Packet Traces

TCP Congestion Control in Wired and Wireless networks

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TCP RENO AND TCP VEGAS IN A DIFFERENTIATED SERVICES NETWORK

Analysis of a Window-Based Flow Control Mechanism based on TCP Vegas in Heterogeneous Network Environment

Each ICMP message contains three fields that define its purpose and provide a checksum. They are TYPE, CODE, and CHECKSUM fields.

Single Network: applications, client and server hosts, switches, access links, trunk links, frames, path. Review of TCP/IP Internetworking

Analyzing the Receiver Window Modification Scheme of TCP Queues

ANewRoutingProtocolinAdHocNetworks with Unidirectional Links

TFRC and RTT Thresholds Interdependence in a Selective Retransmission Scheme

Firewall Stateful Inspection of ICMP

Avaya ExpertNet Lite Assessment Tool

CIS 551 / TCOM 401 Computer and Network Security. Spring 2007 Lecture 8

Vorlesung Kommunikationsnetze

Table of Contents 1 System Maintaining and Debugging 1-1

Network Layer: Internet Protocol

Module Contact: Dr. Ben Milner Copyright of the University of East Anglia Version 2

EE 610 Part 2: Encapsulation and network utilities

Network Layer (4): ICMP

CCNA Exploration Network Fundamentals. Chapter 06 Addressing the Network IPv4

100 Mbps. 100 Mbps S1 G1 G2. 5 ms 40 ms. 5 ms

ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol)

Enhancing TCP Throughput over Lossy Links Using ECN-capable RED Gateways

Dynamic Flow Control using Packet Loss Rate and Round Trip Time

Receiver-initiated Sending-rate Control based on Data Receive Rate for Ad Hoc Networks connected to Internet

Chapter 2 - Part 1. The TCP/IP Protocol: The Language of the Internet

Adapting TCP Segment Size in Cellular Networks

THE TCP specification that specifies the first original

CPSC 826 Internetworking. The Network Layer: Routing & Addressing Outline. The Network Layer

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), RFC 792. Prof. Lin Weiguo Copyleft 2009~2017, School of Computing, CUC

Nonlinear Complex Behaviour of TCP in UMTS Networks and Performance Analysis

On Modeling Datagram Congestion Control Protocol and Random Early Detection using Fluid-Flow Approximation

Improved Model for a Non-Standard TCP Behavior

(ICMP), RFC

A Study on Intrusion Detection Techniques in a TCP/IP Environment

ENSC 835 project TCP performance over satellite links. Kenny, Qing Shao Grace, Hui Zhang

===================================================================== Exercises =====================================================================

Lecture 3. The Network Layer (cont d) Network Layer 1-1

Outline. SC/CSE 3213 Winter Sebastian Magierowski York University. ICMP ARP DHCP NAT (not a control protocol) L9: Control Protocols

On TCP-friendly Video Transfer

Different Layers Lecture 20

SIMULATION BASED ANALYSIS OF THE INTERACTION OF END-TO-END AND HOP-BY-HOP FLOW CONTROL SCHEMES IN PACKET SWITCHING LANS

Video Streaming in Wireless Environments

Performance Modeling and Evaluation of Web Systems with Proxy Caching

TCP performance for request/reply traffic over a low-bandwidth link

Network Layer. The Network Layer. Contents Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Service. Recall:

Network Layer. Recall: The network layer is responsible for the routing of packets The network layer is responsible for congestion control

CS 356: Computer Network Architectures. Lecture 10: IP Fragmentation, ARP, and ICMP. Xiaowei Yang

Analysis and Improvement of Fairness between TCP Reno and Vegas for Deployment of TCP Vegas to the Internet

Real-Time Protocol (RTP)

Chapter 4: outline. 4.5 routing algorithms link state distance vector hierarchical routing. 4.6 routing in the Internet RIP OSPF BGP

Analytic End-to-End Estimation for the One-Way Delay and Its Variation

Investigating the Use of Synchronized Clocks in TCP Congestion Control

PAPER Background TCP data transfer with inline network measurement

TCP/IP Communication Aspects in Monitoring of a Remote Wind Turbine

Dynamic Fair Bandwidth Allocation for DiffServ Classes

Chapter 12 Network Protocols

Session Exam 1. EG/ES 3567 Worked Solutions. (revised)

Introduction to Computer Networks. CS 166: Introduction to Computer Systems Security

ETSF10 Internet Protocols Network Layer Protocols

Lab Two Using Wireshark to Discover IP NAME:

An Implementation of Cross Layer Approach to Improve TCP Performance in MANET

set active-probe (PfR)

Assignment 7: TCP and Congestion Control Due the week of October 29/30, 2015

Networking: Network layer

The Internetworking Problem. Internetworking. A Translation-based Solution

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

70 CHAPTER 1 COMPUTER NETWORKS AND THE INTERNET

TEMB: Tool for End-to-End Measurement of Available Bandwidth

Cisco Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 2

Distributed Clustering Method for Large-Scaled Wavelength Routed Networks

BANDWIDTH MEASUREMENT IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

IP - The Internet Protocol. Based on the slides of Dr. Jorg Liebeherr, University of Virginia

TCP Conformance for Network-Based Control

ENSC 835 project (2002) TCP performance over satellite links. Kenny, Qing Shao Grace, Hui Zhang

Buffer Requirements for Zero Loss Flow Control with Explicit Congestion Notification. Chunlei Liu Raj Jain

Distributed Clustering Method for Large-Scaled Wavelength Routed Networks

Using ICMP to Troubleshoot TCP/IP Networks

An Adaptive Neuron AQM for a Stable Internet

Transcription:

Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics Using System Identification Hiroyuki Ohsaki 1, Mitsushige Morita 2, and Masayuki Murata 1 1 Cybermedia Center, Osaka University 1-30 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan {oosaki, murata}@cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp 2 Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan m-morita@ics.es.osaka-u.ac.jp Abstract. Understanding the end-to-end packet delay dynamics of the Internet is of crucial importance since it directly affects the QoS (Quality of Services) of various applications, and it enables us to design an efficient congestion control mechanism. In our previous studies, we have measured round-trip time of the Internet, and have modeled its dynamics by the ARX (Auto-Regressive exogenous) model using system identification. As input and output data for the ARX model, we have used the packet inter-departure time from a source and the corresponding round-trip time variation measured by the source. In the current paper, for improving the model accuracy, we instead use the packet transmission rate from the source and the average round-trip time measured by the source. Using input and output data measured in working LAN and WAN environments, we model the round-trip time dynamics by determining coefficients of the ARX model using system identification. Through numerical examples, we show that in LAN environment, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled by the ARX model. We also show that in WAN environment, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled when the bottleneck link is shared by a small number of users. 1 Introduction In the past decade, the Internet has been explosively growing in scale as well as in population after the introduction of the WWW (World Wide Web). In January 1997, only 16 million computers were connected to the Internet, but it has jumped to more than 56 million computers in July 1999 [1]. Because of the changing nature of the Internet, nobody knows the current network topology of the Internet. Such uncertainty of the Internet makes it very difficult, but also challenging, to analyze and understand the end-to-end packet behavior of the Internet. Understanding the end-to-end packet delay dynamics of the Internet is of crucial importance since (1) it directly affects the QoS (Quality of Services) of various applications, and (2) it enables us to design an efficient congestion control mechanism for both realtime and non-realtime applications. For non-realtime applications, a delay-based approach for congestion control mechanisms, rather than a loss-based approach as used in E. Gregori et al. (Eds.): NETWORKING 2002, LNCS 2345, pp. 264 276, 2002. c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002

Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics 265 TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), has been proposed (e.g., [2,3]). The main advantage of such a delay-based approach is, if it is properly designed, packet losses can be prevented by anticipating impending congestion from increasing packet delays. In [4,5], we have proposed a novel approach for modeling the end-to-end packet delay dynamics of the Internet using system identification. In [4,5], we have regarded the network, seen by a specific source, as a dynamic SISO (Single-Input and Single Output) system. We have modeled the round-trip time dynamics using the ARX (Auto- Regressive exogenous) model. In those studies, the input to the system was the packet inter-departure time from the source, and the output was the round-trip time variation between two adjacent packets. Using measured data obtained in wired and wireless LAN environments, we have investigated how accurately the ARX model can capture the round-trip time dynamics of the Internet. We have found that the ARX model can capture the round-trip time dynamics when the network is moderately congested. We have also found that, when the network is not congested or the measured round-trip time is noisy, the ARX model fails to capture the dynamics. This paper is a direct extension of [4,5], and has three major changes: (1) refined definition of input and output data for improving the model accuracy, (2) experimentations in LAN and WAN environments, and (3) use of two model validation methods in time domain and frequency domain. The first change is to refine the definition of the input and the output for the ARX model. The input to the system is changed to an instantaneous packet transmission rate from the source during a fixed sampling interval. Also the output is changed to an instantaneous average round-trip time observed by the source during a fixed sampling interval. In [4,5], the sampling interval is not fixed since it is dependent on the packet sending/receiving process at the source. On the contrary, in this paper, the sampling interval is fixed, so that the model accuracy is expected to be improved since system identification originally assumes a fixed sampling interval. The objective of the second change is to investigate how the model accuracy is related to a network configuration. We collect input and output data for system identification in LAN and WAN environments, and build a model for the round-trip time dynamics. The third change is to evaluate the model accuracy in a more rigorous manner. We evaluate the model accuracy in frequency domain as well as in time domain. In [5], the accuracy of the ARX model was evaluated only in time domain; that is, we have compared the simulated outputs from the ARX model (i.e., round-trip times) with the actual round-trip times. In this paper, we also examine the model accuracy in frequency domain using a spectral analysis. Through numerical examples, we show that in LAN environment, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled by the ARX model. We also show that in WAN environment, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled when the bottleneck link is shared by a small number of users. This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, a black-box approach for modeling the round-trip time dynamics of the Internet is explained. In Section 3, we discuss several measurement methods of the round-trip time, in particular, for collecting input and output data for system identification. We also explain three network environments in which input and output data, used for the model identification and for the model validation, are collected. Section 4 shows several measurement and modeling results, and discuss how accurately the ARX model can capture the round-trip time dynamics in various network configurations. Section 5 concludes this paper with a few remarks.

266 H. Ohsaki, M. Morita, and M. Murata round-trip time packet transmission rate e(t) noise (other traffic) network layer physical layer ICMP Echo Request network layer physical layer u(k) ARX model y(k) source ICMP Echo Reply destination Fig. 1. Modeling round-trip time dynamics as SISO system. input (packet transmission rate) output (round-trip time) Fig. 2. ARX model for modeling round-trip time dynamics. 2 Black-Box Modeling Using ARX Model As depicted in Fig. 1, the network seen by a specific source, including underlying protocol layers (e..g, physical, data-link, and network layers), is considered as a blackbox. Our goal of this paper is to model a SISO system describing the round-trip time dynamics: i.e., the relation between a packet sending process from the source and its resulting round-trip time observed at the source. Effects of other traffic (i.e., packets coming from other s) are modeled as noise. As the input to the system, we use an instantaneous packet transmission rate from the source : i.e., the packet transmission rate during a fixed sampling interval. As the output from the system, we use an instantaneous average round-trip time measured by the source : i.e., the average round-trip time during a fixed sampling interval. In this paper, the ARX model is used and its coefficients are determined using system identification [6]. Figure 2 illustrates a fundamental concept of using the ARX model for capturing the round-trip time dynamics. The input to the ARX model is a packet transmission rate from the source, and the output from the ARX model is a roundtrip time measured by the source. Effects of other traffic (i.e., packets coming from other s) are modeled as the noise to the ARX model. Letting u(k) and y(k) be the input and the output at k, respectively, the ARX model is defined as A(q) y(k) =B(q) u(k n d )+e(k) A(q) =1+a 1 q 1 +...+ a na q na B(q) =b 1 + b 2 q 1 +...+ b nb q n b+1 where e(k) is unmeasurable disturbance (i.e., noise), and q 1 is the delay operator; i.e., q 1 u(k) u(k 1). The numbers n a and n b are the orders of polynomials. The number n d corresponds to delays from the input to the output.all coefficients of the polynomials, a n and b n, are parameters of the ARX model, and are to be identified from input and output data. Refer to [6] for the detail of the ARX model and system identification. For compact notation, ζ and θ are introduced as ζ =[n a,n b,n d ] θ =[a 1,...,a na,b 1,...b nb ] T

Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics 267 In [5], we have defined the input as the packet inter-departure time from the source, and the output as the round-trip time variation measured by the source. Although the ARX model, with such input and output definition, can capture the round-trip time dynamics to some extent, the model accuracy is not good. It is possibly because of the non-fixed sampling interval. Namely, use of a fixed sampling interval is generally assumed in system identification, however, in [5], the sampling interval is not fixed since it is dependent on the packet sending/receiving process at the source. In this paper, we therefore use a fixed sampling interval for improving the model accuracy; that is, the input to the system is the packet transmission rate during a fixed sampling interval, and the output from the system is the average round-trip time during a fixed sampling interval. More specifically, the input u(k) and the output y(k) are defined as follows. Let t s (i) be the time at which the ith packet is injected into the network, and t r (i) be the time at which the ith ACK packet is received by the source. We further introduce l(i) as the size of the ith packet including the IP header, and T as the sampling interval. Then, u(k) and y(k) are defined as i φ u(k) = l(i) s(k) y(k) = T i φ (t r(k) r(i) t s (i)) φ r (k) where φ s (k) (or φ r (k)) is the set of packet numbers sent (or received) during kth sampling interval; i.e., φ s (k) {n : kt t s (n) < (k +1)T } φ r (k) {n : kt t r (n) < (k +1)T } 3 Data Collection Using ICMP Packet 3.1 Measurement Method For collecting input and output data from a real network, it is necessary to send a series of probe packets into the network, and to measure their resulting round-trip times. For sending a probe packet, one of the following protocols can be used. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) UDP (User Datagram Protocol) ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) In what follows, we briefly discuss advantages and disadvantages of these protocols for sending a probe packet to collect input and output data, in particular, for system identification. TCP has a feedback-based congestion control mechanism, which controls the packet sending process from a source according to the congestion status of the network. Since it is an ACK-based protocol, it is easy for the source to measure the round-trip time for each packet. However, because of such a feedback-based mechanism, TCP is not suitable for sending a probe packet for two reasons. First, although the input (i.e., the

268 H. Ohsaki, M. Morita, and M. Murata packet transmission rate) should contain diverse frequencies for system identification purposes, the packet transmission rate of TCP would have limited frequencies. Second, regardless of many system identification techniques assuming an independence between the input and the output, the independence assumption cannot be satisfied with TCP since the packet transmission rate is dependent on the past round-trip times. On the contrary, UDP has no feedback-based control. The packet transmission rate of UDP can be freely controlled. However, UDP is a one-way protocol. The destination must perform some procedure to measure the round-trip time for each packet at the sender side. One possible way is to use ICMP Destination Unreachable message as in the traceroute program [7]. When the receives a UDP packet to an unreachable port, it returns ICMP Destination Unreachable message to the source. The source can therefore measure the round-trip time by observing the elapsed time between the UDP packet transmission and the receipt of the corresponding ICMP packet. However, as specified in [8], generation of ICMP Destination Unreachable messages is limited to a low rate. Use of ICMP Destination Unreachable message is therefore not desirable to collect the input and output data for system identification. ICMP is a protocol to exchange control messages such as routing information and node failures [9]. Since ICMP has no feedback-based control, the inter-departure time of ICMP packets can be freely controlled. Also it is easy to measure the round-trip time at the source by using ICMP Echo Request and ICMP Echo Reply messages, as in the ping program. Although some network devices limit the rate of ICMP packets because of malicious use of them [10], such as a DoS (Denial of Service) attack, many network devices respond to ICMP Echo Request message and do not limit the rate of them. In this paper, we therefore choose ICMP Echo message as a probe packet. More specifically, the source sends a series of ICMP Echo Request messages to the destination, and the destination returns ICMP Echo Reply messages. We have modified the ping program to dynamically change the packet inter-departure time (originally fixed at one second). The destination copies the payload of the received ICMP Echo Request message to the returning ICMP Echo Reply message. Thus, the ICMP Echo Reply packet contains the timestamp placed by the source at its transmission time. This enables precise measurement of the round-trip time at the source. Instead of measuring ICMP Echo Request/Reply packet sending/receiving time at the source, a measurement is prepared (Fig. 3). It is for achieving reliable data measurement even when the source sends or receives packets at a very high rate. As shown in Fig. 3, the Ether TAP copies all packets carried on the link, and sends copies to the measurement ; that is, all ICMP Echo Request/Reply packets sent from/to the source are also delivered to the measurement. We use an active measurement approach for collecting data by sending probe packets to the network. This is because we want to know how accurately the ARX model can represent the round-trip time dynamics of the Internet. However, we intend to apply a passive measurement approach, which measures data by monitoring packets being transmitted in the network. 3.2 Network Environments As the number of routers between source and destination s increases, the noise (i.e., effect of other traffic and measurement errors) contained in the output becomes large.

Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics 269 source Ether TAP ICMP Echo Request ICMP Echo Reply network source SW1 SW2 destination measurement FTP server FTP client Fig. 3. Measurement for reliable data measurement. Fig. 4. Network N1 (LAN) Besides, the dominant part of the round-trip time is a queuing delay at the bottleneck router. It is therefore important to choose network configurations, in which the input and the output are collected, by taking account of the number of routers and the location of the bottleneck link. In this paper, we measure packet sending/receiving times in three network configurations including LAN and WAN environments, and obtain the input u(k) and the output y(k). In LAN environment, it is expected that the ARX model can accurately model the round-trip time dynamics since the network topology is rather simple and the measured data would suffer little observation noise. On the contrary, in WAN environment, it is expected that the model accuracy is degraded compared to that in LAN environment since the network topology is complex. We use two network configurations for WAN environment. The difference in these WAN configurations is the location of the bottleneck link. In this paper, the following three network configurations (i.e., N1, N2, and N3) are used for collecting input and output data. - Network N1 (LAN) The network N1 is LAN environment of a simple network configuration (Fig. 4). There exist two switches (SW1 and SW2) between source and destination s. All s and switches are connected to 100 Mbps LAN. The link between SW1 and SW2 also carries background traffic, as well as ICMP Echo Request/Replay packets exchanged between source and destination s. Namely, a bulk FTP transfer from a server (connected to SW1) to a client (connected to SW2) is performed during data collection. - Network N2 (WAN with the bottlenecked access link) The network N2 is WAN environment of a complex network configuration, and the access link is the bottleneck between source and destination s (Fig. 5). The source is connected to the Internet via 100 Mbps LAN, and the destination is connected via 56 Kbps dial-up PPP link. At the time of measurement, the number of hops between source and destination s was 16, and the average round-trip time was 319.7 ms. - Network N3 (WAN with the non-bottlenecked access link) The network N3 is WAN environment, and the access link is not the bottleneck between source and destination s (Fig. 6). The source is connected to the Internet via 100 Mbps LAN. We have chosen www.so-net.ne.jp as the destination. At the time of measurement, the number of hops between source and destination s was 16, and the average round-trip time was 36.89 ms.

270 H. Ohsaki, M. Morita, and M. Murata source u(k) source u(k) Internet destination access link 56Kbit/s ISP u(k) Internet destination Fig. 5. Network N2 (WAN with the bottlenecked access link) Fig. 6. Network N3: (WAN with the nonbottlenecked access link) In the above three network configurations, we measured the packet sending/receiving time at the measurement. The source sent 20,000 ICMP Echo Request packets, and the timestamp of each ICMP Echo Request/Replay packet is recorded by the measurement. The data collection was done at midnight of October 18, 2001. As we have explained in Section 2, the input u(k) and the output y(k) for system identification is calculated from measured packet sending/receiving times. We empirically choose the sampling interval T in each network configuration; that is, T is chosen for each sampling period to contain about five samples. In this paper, the packet inter-departure time from the source is randomly changed, there might be a sampling period in which no packet is sent or received. If no packet is sent (or received) during kth sampling period, the input u(k) (or the output y(k)) is not defined. In such a case, we use the minimum value of all past input (or output) data; i.e., u(k) = min (u(k)) 0 i<k y(k) = min (y(k)) 0 i<k 4 Modeling from Measured Data 4.1 Choice of Model Orders and Number of Samples In this paper, the orders of the ARX model are fixed at n a =5and n b =5in all three network configurations. This is for comparing the model accuracy in each network configuration. The delay from the input to the output, n d, is determined from the average round-trip time. This is because the packet sending rate at a specific time would have influence on the packet receiving process after the round-trip time. By letting N be the total number of round-trip time samples, n d is determined as N k=1 n d = y(k) (1) NT For evaluating the model accuracy, we use two validation methods: (1) a validation method using simulation, and (2) a validation method in frequency domain. The first

Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics 271 method is to compare the simulated output from the ARX model, where zero noise is assumed (i.e., e(k) =0), with the actual output [6]. The simulated output from the ARX model is defined as y (k θ) =ψ T (k θ) θ ψ (k θ) =[ y (k 1 θ),..., y (k n a θ), u(k n d 1),...,u(k n d n b )] The ARX model is thought to be accurate if the simulated output from the ARX model coincides to the actual output. The second method is to compare the frequency response of the ARX model with the frequency response estimated by the spectral analysis [6]. The bode plot is used for visually comparing those frequency responses. The bode plot illustrates the gain and the phase of a dynamic system at different frequencies. When a linear stable dynamic system has a sinusoid input signal u(t) =A sin(ωt), the output from the system can be written as y(k) =B sin(ω + φ) The gain and the phase of the system at the frequency ω are B/A and φ, respectively. The frequency response of the ARX model is easily obtained by deriving its corresponding transfer function. On the contrary, the spectral analysis directly estimates the frequency response from measured input and output data. The ARX model is thought to be accurate if frequency responses of the ARX model and the spectral analysis are identical. From all input and output data obtained in Section 3, two datasets for determining parameters of the ARX model (i.e., model identification) and for validating the model accuracy (i.e., model validation) are extracted. The number of input and output data used for system identification directly affects the model accuracy. We use 150 input and output data for both model identification and model validation; i.e., we use input and output data from 2,001 to 2,150 for model identification, and from 2,201 to 2,350 for model validation. 4.2 Modeling Results and Discussions - Network N1 (LAN) Figure 7 shows (a) the input (the packet transmission rate from the source ), (b) the output (the average round-trip time), (c) comparison of the simulated output and the actual output, and (d) comparison of frequency responses of the ARX model and the spectral analysis for the network N1. Note that (a) and (b) are input and output data not for model validation, but for model identification. In this case, the average packet transmission rate from the source was 66.6 Mbps, and the average round-trip time was 0.42 ms.the average throughput of the FTP transfer was 5.2 Mbps.Also the sampling interval is T =0.9 ms, and the delay of the ARX model is n d =0according to Eq. (1). Figure 7(c) shows good agreement between the simulated output and the actual output. Figure 7(d) also shows good agreement between frequency responses of the

272 H. Ohsaki, M. Morita, and M. Murata 100 80 60 40 20 packet transmission rate [Mbps] 120 0 2000 2050 2100 2150 round-trip time[ms] 0.44 0.435 0.43 0.425 0.42 0.415 0.41 2000 2050 2100 2150 (a) Input data (packet transmission rate) (b) Output data (average round-trip time) round-trip time [ms] 0.42 0.415 0.41 2250 2260 2270 2280 2290 2300 Amplitude Phase (degrees) 10-2 10-4 10-6 10-2 10-1 10 0 10 1 0 100 200 10-2 10-1 10 0 Frequency (rad/ s) 10 1 (c) Comparision with simulation (solid: measured output, dotted: simulated output ) (d) Comparision in frequency domain (solid: ARX model, dotted: spectrum analysis) Fig. 7. Network N1 (LAN) ARX model and the spectral analysis. Although frequency responses at a high frequency are different, such disagreement would be caused by inaccuracy of the spectral analysis, in particular, at a high frequency [6]. From these observations, we conclude that in the network N1, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled by the ARX model. One of possible explanations for this phenomenon is that in LAN environment, the packet transmission rate from the source directly affects the packet waiting time at the bottleneck link, resulting in a strong correlation between the packet transmission rate and the round-trip time. Recall that the average packet transmission rate in this experiment is rather high (i.e., 66.6 Mbps). Although results are not included here due to space limitation, the ARX model cannot capture the round-trip time dynamics when the average packet transmission rate was 20 Mbps. This phenomenon is possibly because of little packet waiting time at the bottleneck link.

Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics 273 packet transmission rate [Mbps] 20 15 10 5 0 2000 2050 2100 2150 (a) Input data (packet transmission rate) round-trip time [ms] 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 2000 2050 2100 2150 (b) Output data (average round-trip time) round-trip time [ms] 40 35 30 25 20 2250 2260 2270 2280 2290 2300 Amplitude Phase (degrees) 10 2 10 0 10-2 10-2 10-1 10 0 10 1 0 500 1000 10-2 10-1 10 0 10 1 Frequency (rad/ s) (c) Comparision with simulation (solid: measured output, dotted: simulated output ) (d) Comparision in frequency domain (solid: ARX model, dotted: spectrum analysis) Fig. 8. Network N3 (WAN with the non-bottlenecked access link) - Network N2 (WAN with the bottlenecked access link) Figure 9 shows input and output data for model identification, and results of system identification for the network N2. In this experiment, the average packet transmission rate from the source was 31.8 Kbps, and the average round-trip time was 319.7 ms. The sampling interval is T = 125 ms, and the delay of thearx model is n d =2according to Eq. (1). The network N2 is WAN environment where there are 15 routers between source and destination s. Intuitively, it is expected that the modeling the round-trip time dynamics is more difficult than in the network N1. However, Fig. 9(c) indicates that the simulated output and the actual output well coincide. In addition, frequency responses in Fig. 9(d) shows good agreement between the ARX model and the spectral analysis. Hence, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled by the ARX model in the network N2. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the access link is the bottleneck between source and destination s. Namely, as the packet transmission rate

274 H. Ohsaki, M. Morita, and M. Murata packet transmission rate [Mbps] 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 2000 2050 2100 2150 round-trip time [ms] 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 2000 2050 2100 2150 (a) Input data (packet transmission rate) (b) Output data (average round-trip time) round-trip time [ms] 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 2250 2260 2270 2280 2290 2300 Amplitude Phase (degrees) 10 4 10 3 10 2 10-2 10-1 10 0 10 1 0 200 400 10-2 10-1 10 0 Frequency (rad/ s) 10 1 (c) Comparision with simulation (solid: measured output, dotted: simulated output ) (d) Comparision in frequency domain (solid: ARX model, dotted: spectrum analysis) Fig. 9. Network N2 (WAN with the bottlenecked access link) from the source changes, the packet waiting time also changes at the bottleneck link. In the network N2, since the access link is the bottleneck, the round-trip time suffers little disturbance from other traffic. Therefore, there exists a strong correlation between the packet transmission rate and the round-trip time, resulting in an accurate ARX model. From these observations and discussions, we conclude that in WAN environment, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled when the bottleneck link is shared by a small number of users. - Network N3 (WAN with the non-bottlenecked access link) Figure 8 shows input and output data for model identification, and results of system identification for the network N3, where the average packet transmission rate from the source was 9.55 Mbps, and the average round-trip time was 36.89 ms. The sampling interval is T =6ms, and the delay of the ARX model is n d =6. Figure 8(c) shows that the simulated output and the actual output are completely different. Also, frequency

Measurement-Based Modeling of Internet Round-Trip Time Dynamics 275 responses in Fig. 8(c) disagree. Thus, in the network N3, the ARX model fails to capture the round-trip time dynamics. This inaccuracy would be caused by a large noise; that is, in the network N3, the network topology is rather complex, and the bottleneck link would be shared by many users. Hence, the packet transmission rate from the source has little impact on the round-trip time. In other words, there is a very weak correlation between the packet transmission rate and the round-trip time, resulting in an inaccurate ARX model. Although we have done several experiments for different destination s, the ARX model cannot capture the round-trip time dynamics in any case. From these observations, we conclude that the ARX model is unable to model the round-trip time dynamics when the network configuration is complex and the packet transmission rate has little effect on the round-trip time. 5 Conclusion In this paper, we have modeled the round-trip time dynamics of the Internet by the ARX model using system identification. As input and output data for the ARX model, we have used the packet transmission rate from the source and the average round-trip time measured by the source. Using input and output data measured in working LAN and WAN environments, we have investigated how accurately the ARX model can capture the round-trip time dynamics. Through numerical examples, we have shown that in LAN environment, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled by the ARX model. We have also shown that in WAN environment, the round-trip time dynamics can be accurately modeled when the bottleneck link is shared by a small number of users. As a future work, we are currently working to improve the model accuracy by using more complicated models such as ARMAX (Auto-Regressive Moving Average exogenous) model. We are planning to design an efficient delay-based congestion control mechanism by utilizing the ARX model, which captures the round-trip time dynamics. References 1. Internet Software Consortium, Internet domain survey. available at http://www.isc.org/ds/. 2. R. Jain, A delay-based approach for congestion avoidance in interconnected heterogeneous computer networks, ACM Computer Communication Review, vol. 19, pp. 56 71, Oct. 1989. 3. L. S. Brakmo, S. W. O Malley, and L. L. Peterson, TCPVegas: New techniques for congestion detection and avoidance, in Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM 94, pp. 24 35, Oct. 1994. 4. H. Ohsaki, M. Murata, and H. Miyahara, Modeling end-to-end packet delay dynamics of the Internet using system identification, in Proceedings of Seventeenth International Teletraffic Congress, pp. 1027 1038, Dec. 2001. 5. H. Ohsaki, M. Morita, and M. Murata, On modeling round-trip time dynamics of the Internet using system identification, to be presented at the 16th International Conference on Information Networking (ICOIN-16), Jan. 2002. 6. L. Ljung, System identification theory for the user. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1987. 7. S. Hares, Essential tools for the OSI Internet, Request for Comments (RFC) 1574, Feb. 1994.

276 H. Ohsaki, M. Morita, and M. Murata 8. F. Baker, Requirements for IP version 4 routers, Request for Comments (RFC) 1812, June 1995. 9. J. Postel, Internet control message protocol, Request for Comments (RFC) 792, Sept. 1981. 10. S. Savage, Sting: A TCP-based network measurement tool, in USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, pp. 71 79, Oct. 1999.