[12508] in North American Network Operators' Group
Routing without source information and Traffic self-similarity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nathan Boyd)
Thu Sep 18 17:00:24 1997
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:02:06 -0400
From: Nathan Boyd <boydn@jacana.lcs.mit.edu>
To: nanog@merit.edu
cc: nate@graphics.lcs.mit.edu
Hello all,
I would appreciate any help with the following.
First, what problems arise in a network that routes without information about
the sender? In other words, imagine that the IP header did not contain the
source address - what problems would this raise? Are optimal routing,
security, billing, traceability, network management, etc., suddenly
intractable?
Second, to what degree do you believe Internet traffic exhibits
self-similarity, and how does this change with varying levels of traffic
aggregation? I have read papers from Bellcore and others suggesting that
no matter the level of aggregation (be it a single Internet user or a major
NAP), Internet traffic exhibits high degrees of self-similarity - but more
recent research does not seem to agree with this.
I am sorry if this is an inappropriate forum for the topics I have raised,
however after reading through this list for some time it is apparent that we
have assembled here a good deal of real-world experience, something I believe
is requisite for a meaningful discussion of real-world network issues.
Very interested to hear what you have to say,
Nate Boyd
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
