Abstract
Abstract: Recent studies have shown that TCP traffic displays strong multifractal scaling. However, a physical explanation of why such a behavior occurs is still eluding. In this paper, we propose a cascade model that is based on the retransmission and congestion avoidance mechanisms of TCP. At the same time, it relates to the physical, tree-like organization of networks. This model allows to relate the most salient multifractal features with basic traffic parameters as the RTT and the loss probability. Numerical experiments confirm that such a parsimonious model is able to give a satisfactory explanation for a number of features pertaining to multifractality, including the range of scales where it is observed. We believe these results open the way to a more profound understanding of the small time scale properties of TCP traffic.