This document discusses statistical approaches for detecting anomalies in network traffic. It begins by describing the typical four-stage process for anomaly detection: data collection, data analysis/feature extraction, inference to classify traffic as normal or anomalous, and validation. It then discusses several specific statistical approaches that can be used:
(1) Extracting features using statistical models of the traffic distributions, such as α-stable distributions, which can properly model highly variable network traffic.
(2) Using techniques like the Kalman filter to analyze traffic volume changes at different time scales and detect both short-term and long-term anomalies.
(3) Applying the Holt-Winters forecasting technique to decompose traffic into a baseline, trend,