Heavy Tailed Network Delay: An Alpha-Stable

ADEQUATE QUALITY OF IP SERVICES DEMANDS LOW TRANSMISSION DELAYS. HOWEVER, PACKETS TRAVELING IN A NETWORK ARE SUBJECT TO A VARIETY OF DELAYS THAT, IN REAL-TIME APPLICATIONS, SEVERELY DEGRADE THE QUALITY OF SERVICE (QOS). THIS PAPER PRESENTS A GENERAL END-TO-END DELAY MODEL SUITABLE FOR A MULTI-NODE PATH IN THE PRESENCE OF HEAVY-TAILED TRAFFIC. THE PROPOSED METHODOLOGY IS BASED ON AN ALPHA-STABLE RANDOM VARIABLE DESCRIPTION. THIS ALLOWS US TO DEFINE A NETWORK PROCESSING MEASURE THAT RELATES THE DELAY SPREAD TO THE HEAVY TAIL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRAFFIC, THE NUMBER OF NODES IN A ROUTE, AND THE PROCESSING SPEED AT THE NODES.