Correlation dimension based nonlinear analysis of network traffics with different application protocols

This paper uses a correlation dimension based nonlinear analysis approach to analyse the dynamics of network traffics with three different application protocols--HTTP, FTP and SMTP. First, the phase space is reconstructed and the embedding parameters are obtained by the mutual information method. Secondly, the correlation dimensions of three different traffics are calculated and the results of analysis have demonstrated that the dynamics of the three different application protocol traffics is different from each other in nature, i.e. HTTP and FTP traffics are chaotic, furthermore, the former is more complex than the later; on the other hand, SMTP traffic is stochastic. It is shown that correlation dimension approach is an efficient method to understand and to characterize the nonlinear dynamics of HTTP, FTP and SMTP protocol network traffics. This analysis provided insight into and a more accurate understanding of nonlinear dynamics of internet traffics which have a complex mixture of chaotic and stochastic components.