In this paper we examine a high speed wireless access network and present traffic patterns and on-line behavior for wireless users. To date, wireless network studies have largely focused on cellular voice technologies and architectures. Here we present an analysis of data collected from an authenticated campus area access network providing both wireless 802.11b and walk-up Ethernet capabilities through an authenticated access network service. We present an analysis of session data, transport layer flow data, and movement data taken from 109 wireless access points spread across 18 buildings. Local area wireless network (LAWN) wireless services support about 444 wireless hosts, 765 current users, and have sustained more than a million TCP flows over the nearly two month collection period.

Understanding network traffic from operational networks is critical to the design and evaluation of network protocols. We present analysis of a data set comprised of eight months of RADIUS authentication data taken from a large national dial-up Internet Service Provider (ISP). We present basic statistics, including session counts based on time-of-day, session length distribution, session inter-arrival times, and growth in the customer base over the measurement period. We investigate more deeply several properties of the data. We use area code information to correlate account location with basic statistics. For example, we find that United States west coast accounts tend to have earlier-than-average mean session start time. We find that 40% of sampled accounts exhibit concurrent sessions (two or more sessions active at the same time), while 20% show multiple originating phone numbers. Both phenomenon are likely to increase as users become more mobile and sophisticated. Finally, we offer evidence of significant session activity due to hypothesized automated processes, characterized by periodic interarrival times and/or constant session durations. Our results provide important data for the simulation and modeling of access network protocols and applications. They may also form the basis for creating a workload model of access networks.