Abstract—Instant multimedia communication has moved into
mainstream application scenarios and is used in various settings.
Dimensioning future networks into which these solutions are
integrated requires knowledge of the underlying traffic char-
acteristics of these systems. Here we present findings for the
Microsoft Office Communication Server deployed at a midsize
educational institution in the upper Midwest. We find that
different individual banndwidth utilizing classes of communi-
cation clients or endpoints can be identified that shape the
overall server traffic significantly and range from self-similar
to random bandwidth utilization patterns over time. Using our
initial findings presented here allows for future network capacity
planning and bandwidth utilization modeling before deployment
of this and similar solutions.
Index Terms—Office communications server, online collabora-
tion, conferencing, network performance evaluation