Network Traffic Analysis: A Case Study of ABU Network

Abstract

The Internet is being viewed as a critical component of success by the researchers, teachers and students in the Universities and Colleges. The Objectives of thesis is to identify unproductive network based applications responsible for consuming valuable bandwidth of University network system and to enhance utility of productive applications on a University network. This research work, geared towards analysis on the internet traffic network’s of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria as a case study. the monitoring of network traffic was conducted by bandwidth monitoring software, a packet sniffer (using Wireshark Version 165, SVR Rev 40429) configured as a gateway between the University network system and the internet over a 90-day monitoring period in a schedule of 15 minutes daily, 30 minutes weekly and 2 hours monthly. The data (packets) captures was further analysed using MATLAB which is a tool for graphing network data from which conclusions from the graphs was drawn that ABU’s current network traffic is underutilized and far from optimal in terms of Internet Inbound/Outbound traffic generated by its users (staff/students). It has also been observed that defensive bandwidth management is insufficient in respect to the institution’s aims and objectives on its network usage. This emphasises the need for improved bandwidth management and optimization.

Keyword: Network monitoring traffic, Monitoring software (packet sniffer), Packet capture and Traffic analysis.