Dataset characterization
| dataset |
link type |
location |
date |
duration |
number of packets |
| FIX-west |
OC3 |
Fix-west exchange point |
1998-03-12 |
435s
(7m 15s)
|
IPv4: 5.7 M |
| Equinix-Chicago |
OC192 (only westbound direction) |
Link between Chicago, IL and Seattle, WA |
2008-03-19 |
3720s
(1h 2m)
|
IPv4: 1.75 G |
| IPv6: 76 k |
| WIDE MAWI Samplepoint-F |
150 Mbps |
Transpacific |
2008-03-17 - 2008-03-21 |
260100s
(3d 15m)
|
IPv4: 3.82 G |
| IPv6: 11 M |
Cumulative IPv4 packet size distribution in 1998 and 2008
Cumulative IPv4 packet size distribution by packets (solid lines) and bytes (dotted lines) for 1998 (Fix-West, an exchange point in California), and 2008 (Chicago exchange point and WIDE MAWI research backbone) data sets.
Compared to the 1998 data, in 2008 the fraction of large ( > 1400 bytes ) packets has grown, while the fraction of small ( < 100 bytes ) packets has not changed much. The mode around 552 and 576 bytes from 1998 has largely disappeared in 2008.
Cumulative IPv4 and IPv6 packet size distribution in 2008
Cumulative IPv4 and IPv6 packet size distribution by packets (solid lines) and bytes (dotted lines) for Equinix-Chicago and WIDE MAWI research backbone, both taken in 2008. Notes:
-
The fraction of small IPv6 packets is very large.
- The RFC2460 IPv6 minimum MTU of 1280 is visible on the Equinix-Chicago link, but not on the WIDE link.
-
The IPv6/IPv4 ratio on the Equinix-Chicago link was 4.34e-05 and on the WIDE link 2.2e-03.
-
The Equinix-Chicago IPv6 dataset is arguably too small (76 thousand packets) to be representative.
-
Other IPv6 packet sizes that stand out: 552, 562 (eq-chic), 516, 752 (wide).
Common packet lengths
| IPv4+TCP+512 MSS default for some implementations | 552 (512+20+20) |
| IPv4 Internet Path MTU (RFC 879) | 576 |
| IPv6 minimum MTU (RFC1883) | 576 |
| IPv6 minimum MTU (RFC2460) | 1280 |
| Ethernet (RFC 1191) | 1500 |
Other packet size distribution studies
Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA)