Multiscale nature of network traffic

The complexity and richness of teletraffic is shown to be well matched by the multiscale analysis and modeling frameworks of self-similarity, long-range dependence, fractals, multifractals, and infinitely divisible cascades. These frameworks not only allow to confirm and formalize the presence of multiscale behavior in traffic, but also point to possible causes of multiscale structure in the physical networking infrastructure. Whatever choice of the framework, the multiscale wavelet transform provides a parsimonious and efficient domain for processing.