RLBrowse: Generating Realistic Packet Traces with Reinforcement Learning

Alexander Griessel, Maximilian Stephan, Martin Mieth, Wolfgang Kellerer, Patrick Kramer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Automated Web Browsing tools, such as Selenium and headless browsers, are used to collect traffic traces from networked applications, with which statistical models describing the traffic are obtained. However, we show that traces from Selenium and headless browsers have markedly different traffic characteristics than human generated traces, with potential impact on the quality of the obtained models. To overcome this limitation, we propose RLBrowse, an automated web automation framework that imitates human browsing habits by separating web automation from the browser using reinforcement learning. By separating the browser and automation tool, RLBrowse improves on 9 out of the 13 traffic trace features tested. The distribution of packet sizes in a trace improves the most, with a nearly 400 % improvement. We test RLBrowse by collecting a corpus of network packet traces on a set of human-navigated website browsing sessions, and by RLBrowse and Selenium. In the subsequent analysis, we identify key differences in the resulting packet traces.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium 2022
Subtitle of host publicationNetwork and Service Management in the Era of Cloudification, Softwarization and Artificial Intelligence, NOMS 2022
EditorsPal Varga, Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville, Alex Galis, Istvan Godor, Noura Limam, Prosper Chemouil, Jerome Francois, Marc-Oliver Pahl
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781665406017
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event2022 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium, NOMS 2022 - Budapest, Hungary
Duration: 25 Apr 202229 Apr 2022

Publication series

NameProceedings of the IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium 2022: Network and Service Management in the Era of Cloudification, Softwarization and Artificial Intelligence, NOMS 2022

Conference

Conference2022 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium, NOMS 2022
Country/TerritoryHungary
CityBudapest
Period25/04/2229/04/22

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