Fair Internet Traffic Integration: Network Flow Models and Analysis

We use riow-level models to study the integration of two types of lnternet traffic, elastic
file transfers and streaming traffic. Previous studies have concentrated on just one type of
traffic, such as the flow level models of lnternet congestion control, where network capacity
is dynamically shared between elastic file transfers, with a randomly varying number of such
flows. We consider the addition of streaming traffic in two cases, under a fairness assumption
that includes Tce-friendliness as a special case, and under certain admission control
schemes. We establish sufficient conditions for stability, using a riuid model of the system. We
also assess the impact of each traffic type on the other.” file transfers are seen by streaming
traffic as reducing the available capacity, whereas for file transfers the presence of streaming
traffic amounts to replacing sharp capacity constraints by relaxed constraints. Simulation
results suggest that the integration of streaming traffic and file transfers has a stabilizing
effect on the variabili~ of the number of riows present in the system.