Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
In this paper we demonstrate how TCP congestion control can show chaotic behavior. We demonstrate the major features of chaotic systems in TCP/IP networks with examples. These features include unpredictability, extreme sensitivity to initial conditions and odd periodicity. Previous work has shown the fractal nature of aggregate TCP/IP traffic and one explanation to this phenomenon was that traffic can be approximated by a large number of ON/OFF sources where the random ON and/or OFF periods are of length described by a heavy-tailed distribution. In this paper we show that this argument is not necessary to explain self-similarity, neither is randomness is required. Rather, TCP itself as a deterministic process creates chaos, which generates self-similarity. This property is inherent in today's TCP/IP networks and it is independent of higher layer applications or protocols. The two causes, heavy-tailed ON/OFF and chaotic TCP together contribute to the phenomenon, called the fractal nature of Internet traffic.
Veres et al. (Thu,) studied this question.