A novel application classification and its impact on network performance

Network traffic is believed to have a significant impact on network performance and is the result of the application operation on networks. Majority of current network performance analysis are based on the premise that the traffic transmission is through the shortest path, which is too simple to reflect a real traffic process. The real traffic process is related to the network application process characteristics, involving the realistic user behavior. In this paper, first, an application can be divided into the following three categories according to realistic application process characteristics: random application, customized application and routine application. Then, numerical simulations are carried out to analyze the effect of different applications on the network performance. The main results show that (i) network efficiency for the BA scale-free network is less than the ER random network when similar single application is loaded on the network; (ii) customized application has the greatest effect on the network efficiency when mixed multiple applications are loaded on BA network.