Title: Explaining World Wide Web Traffic Self-Similarity
Author: Mark E. Crovella and Azer Bestavros
Date: August 29, 1995

Abstract:

Recently the notion of self-similarity has been shown to apply to
wide-area and local-area network traffic.  In this paper we examine the
mechanisms that give rise to self-similar network traffic.  We present
an explanation for traffic self-similarity by using a particular subset
of wide area traffic: traffic due to the World Wide Web (WWW).  Using an
extensive set of traces of actual user executions of NCSA Mosaic,
reflecting over half a million requests for WWW documents, we show
evidence that WWW traffic is self-similar.  Then we show that the
self-similarity in such traffic can be explained based on the underlying
distributions of WWW document sizes, the effects of caching and user
preference in file transfer, the effect of user ``think time'', and the
superimposition of many such transfers in a local area network.  To do
this we rely on empirically measured distributions both from our traces
and from data independently collected at over thirty WWW sites.