heavy-users in 3G networks via empirical measurement

Abstract—Cellular technology is widely used for Internet
access, also because most operators are now offering Mbit/s
data rates at affordable prices. Many studies analyzed the
performance of these networks using analytical or simulation
approaches. However, due to lack of data from operational
environments, very little is known about the performance of real
cellular networks. In this paper, we assess the performance of
the 3G network of one of the major European telecom operators,
using several recent traffic traces of TCP connections to port
80 and 8080. After presenting performance statistics related to
all the network users, we focus on heavy users. To assess
their performance and to uncover the related causes, we introduce
an investigation approach easily repeatable in the very common
situation where only data traces are available, with no other
information such as mapping of users to cells, network capacity,
or packet payload. Analyzing both “single long-lived connections”
and “multiple long-lived connections”, we assess the performance
of those users, providing insights on how and why performance
can vary significantly over time and among different users.