In the world of today, traffic engineering has become a critical part of any organization’s infrastructure. With millions of automobiles on the roadways in the United States alone, congestion is becoming a major issue for businesses. Traffic engineers must be quick to identify problems and take appropriate action to alleviate them as they arise. This requires studying both the online and offline traffic engineering applications.
One such application is the binomial model of traffic engineering. The binomial distribution is a mathematical tool used to create a numerical simulation of any system of linear variables. Traffic flows can be studied using this class and will give any traffic engineering student major headaches when dealing with real-world situations. These variables include speed, traffic volume, average traveling time, average route length, average timing, and number of times the vehicle will cross each obstacle along the way.
Another important traffic engineering application deals with link weights. Link weights are measures of the relevance of various factors in determining the performance of a network. In the case of traffic engineering, these factors are speed, volume, timing, and reliability. The idea is to determine the most efficient routes that are able to avoid problems. In order to do this, various formulas must be worked out.
An example of a formula is the link weights in the traffic demand matrix given in the previous chapter. In the previous chapter, we learned about a mathematical tool called the discriminant analysis. This tool takes an input value, such as the expected traffic number for a certain route, and then compared it to the actual numbers during the previous year. If the predicted number is higher than the actual, then the discrimination is good and you can consider it a positive signal to invest in that particular route. If the result is negative, you can safely reject the idea that investing in that route will result in a loss.
The concept of inter-domain routing is also an example of a traffic engineering application. In simple terms, it is the process of taking a source IP address and changing it into an IP address that is expected to go to a target IP address. This process is often referred to as Domain Redirection. The main advantage of doing this is to save money on internet connections. This is often used in low priority connections where a large number of users might have to access the internet.
Another traffic engineering application is the binomial distribution. The binomial distribution gives rise to a number series, which is often used to analyze traffic patterns. For instance, the binomial distribution can be used to analyze how the arrival rates for certain dates and times relate to the growth rates of a website’s traffic. It can also be used to analyze the relationship between the rates at which certain visitors come and go and the amount of revenue earned by a website. The binomial distribution also enables an analyst to analyze traffic metrics over different time frames, such as over a given number of days, over a given number of months, or over a given number of years. The binomial distribution is also widely used by traffic engineering applications because it is one of the most reliable traffic estimators.
An internet accelerator can also be classified as a traffic engineering device, such as routers or traffic counters. These devices can send request to many network nodes. These network nodes then forward the request on to other network nodes or servers. Some times, the request is forwarded to a remote data center that processes the request via a local area network or the Internet itself. Regardless, of how the requests are forwarding, traffic engineering applications associated with the use of these algorithms are called offline traffic engineering applications.
All these networking technologies and more are readily available today thanks to the rapid advancements in computer technology. With this technology, traffic engineering can be easier. In addition, these new tools can be put to great use in order to ensure the safety and efficiency of our power distribution networks. Thanks to the diffserv-aware technology used by Ethernet companies, for example, power distribution companies can more accurately determine the routes of electric power to prevent outages and manage the power flow more efficiently.
