In this study we characterize Web response time and examine the effects of proxy caching, network bandwidth, traffic load, persistent connections for a page, and periodicity. The distributions of connection time and elapsed time can be modeled using Pearson, Weibul, or Log-logistic distributions.
Response times display strong daily and weekly patterns.
We also characterize the effect of a user's network bandwidth on response time. Average connection time from a client via a 33.6 K modem is two times longer than that from a client via switched Ethernet. We estimate the elapsed time savings from using persistent connections for a page to vary from about a quarter to a half. This study finds that a proxy caching server is sensitive to traffic loads. Contrary to the typical thought about Web proxy caching, this study also finds that a single stand-alone squid proxy cache does not always reduce response time for our workloads.