The rising popularity of the Internet, along with the arrival of broadband networks, has increased the use of streaming media applications. The traffic generated by these applications is quite different from Web traffic, dominant until now. It is therefore important, in order to support properly these new services, to understand and characterize the traffic associated with these applications in terms of their behavior and network impact. However, there are not many studies that handle this matter.

The aim of this paper is to study the traffic associated with a specific real-time streaming audio service, such as the live radio on the Internet. Starting from this study, we present an analysis of the characteristics of the main streaming media products: RealNetworks RealPlayer, Microsoft Windows MediaPlayer, Apple QuickTime Player and WinAmp Player, in relation to parameters such as the inter-arrival time, the packet length, the traffic flow pattern, etc. In addition, with these results, we examine the impact of inserting this service into a particular data network, such as the ComUNITY Access system from Com21. This system provides fast, inexpensive access to on-line data services (like streaming media) for thousands consumers over the existing HFC networks using embedded ATM transport technology. The Ethernet frames (with the user data) are encapsulated into ATM cells, with its corresponding overhead. Therefore, we have estimated the real bandwidth used by the radio on-line and examined how the cable network have to be planned in order to be able to support this service.