Game traffic classification using statistical characteristics at the transport layer

Abstract

The pervasive game environments have activated explosive growth of the Internet over recent decades. Thus, understanding Internet traffic characteristics and precise classification have become important issues in network management, resource provisioning, and game application development. Naturally, much attention has been given to analyzing and modeling game traffic. Little research, however, has been undertaken on the classification of game traffic. In this paper, we perform an interpretive traffic analysis of popular game applications at the transport layer and propose a new classification method based on a simple decision tree, called an alternative decision tree (ADT), which utilizes the statistical traffic characteristics of game applications. Experimental results show that ADT precisely classifies game traffic from other application traffic types with limited traffic features and a small number of packets, while maintaining low complexity by utilizing a simple decision tree. © 2010 ETRI.