Generative, High-Fidelity Network Traces

Recently, much attention has been devoted to the development of generative network traces and their potential use in supplementing real-world data for a variety of data-driven networking tasks. Yet, the utility of existing synthetic traffic approaches are limited by their low fidelity: low feature granularity, insufficient adherence to task constraints, and subpar class coverage. As effective network tasks are increasingly reliant on raw packet captures, we advocate for a paradigm shift from coarse-grained to fine-grained traffic generation compliant to constraints. We explore this path employing controllable diffusion-based methods. Our preliminary results suggest its effectiveness in generating realistic and fine-grained network traces that mirror the complexity and variety of real network traffic required for accurate service recognition. We further outline the challenges and opportunities of this approach, and discuss a research agenda towards text-to-traffic synthesis.