Traffic Classification in IP Networks Through Machine Learning Techniques in Final Systems

Abstract

Data centers in higher education institutions, as well as those of large corporations, face challenges in terms of traffic flow management. In some cases, due to the limited hardware resources used for this purpose, and in others, despite having enough high-performance equipment, the centers lag behind when the traffic flow grows exponentially due to the memory limitations of the devices, which slows down the network performance. The contribution of this investigation work is the implementation of a classifying elephant and mice system using machine learning techniques for the early detection with the first flow based on the dynamic calculation of the threshold, according to the input parameters of the final system. In the first instance, training algorithms are used to determine the best performance, then the proposed algorithm determines the model with the best prediction, obtained from the supervised learning algorithm trained in off line mode. Finally in the phase of online prediction, the algorithm is capable of predicting with high precision the type of traffic in terms of the input flow, and updates in a dynamic way the threshold to determine whether the traffic is elephant or mice. With this information the network hardware can decide then to route the flows according to their characterization. According to the results, the model that best generates predictions is the decision tree with a 100% confidence level.

Keywords

• Packet sniffer
• Wireshark
• machine learning
• traffic classification