The Wide Area Network (WAN) traffic exhibits very unusual, irregular behavior. This behavior cannot be model with classical methods (Poisson like processes). At this moment we have an impression that the great complexity of network, combined with "competitive" protocol is somehow responsible for this. However, we do not know which kind of stochastic process (or even class of processes) is the appropriate model. To make the thing worse there are no statistical tools that can "calibrate" this apparent irregularity.

This talk will deal with a proposed model for WAN traffic. We derived an extension of Willinger-Taqqu model (for Local Area Network -LAN) that incorporates the complexity of network as well as protocol. We will present the simulations that seem to agree with real life experience as well as help us understand the transition from LAN to WAN traffic. This is a report on the "research in progress" and many questions remain unanswered. We plan to summarize the future work in two categories. Applied , which is related to verifications of some assumptions of our model as well as comparison between simulations and real WAN traffic, and theoretical, which deals with mathematical properties of the proposed model.