Analysis of discrete-time buffers with general session-based arrivals

Session-based arrival streams are a new approach for modelling the traffic generated by users in a telecommunication network. in this paper, we analyze the behavior of a discrete-time buffer with one output line, an infinite storage capacity and session-based arrivals. Users from an infinite user population can start and end sessions during which they are active and send packets to the buffer. Each active user generates a random but strictly positive number of packets per time slot. Unlike in previous work, there are T different session types and for each type, the session-length distribution is general. The resulting discrete-time queueing model is aualyzed by means of an analytical technique, which is basically a generating-functions approach that uses an infinite-dimensional state description. Expressions are obtained for the steady-state probability generating functions of both the buffer content and the packet delay. From these, the mean values and the tail distributions of the buffer content and the packet; delay are derived as well. Some numerical examples are shown to illustrate the influence of the session-based packet arrival process on the buffer behavior