From Network Design for Internetworking Lectures at Xi'an Jaotong University -- Sept 1998. byRoman Markowski
Network design depends on applications planned for the network
Size of traffic
units like bits, bytes, octets, messages, blocks are packaged into files, packets, frames, cells
data transfer is measured by the number of units or packages transmitted per unit time (Mbps, KBps, pps)
Traffic characteristics
burstiness = (peak rate) / (average rate); a source that infrequently sends traffic is said to be very bursty (example: one e-mail per hour vs. continuous video stream)
