Abstract-In this paper we demonstrate how TCP congestion control can show chaotic behavior. We demonstrate the major features of chaotic systems in TCPlIP networks with examples. These features include unpredictability, extreme sensitivity to initial conditions and odd periodicity. Previous work has shown the fractal nature of aggregate TCPAP traffic and one explanation to this phenomenon was that traffic can be approximated by a large number of ON/OFF sources where the random ON and/or OFF periods are of length described by a heavy tailed distribution. In this paper we show that this argument is not necessary to explain selfsimilarity, neither randomness is required. Rather, TCP itself as a deterministic process creates chaos, which generates self-similarity. This property is inherent in todays TCPlIP networks and it is independent of higher layer applications or protocols. The two causes: heavy tailed ONlOFF and chaotic TCP together contribute to the phenomena, called fractal nature of Internet traffic.

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