Effects of upper-layer protocols on self-similarity of network traffic

It has been pointed out by many researchers that network traffic in LAN and WAN environments has a self-similar nature, which is also known as long-range dependence. However, it has not been clear why self-similarity occurs on the network. Also, its impact on the network performance has not been fully examined. In this paper, we first investigate the cause of self-similarity on the network employing TCP/IP as upper-layer protocols through simulation experiments. We further show the effects of self-similarity on network performance in terms of packet transmission delay and packet loss probability.