Abstract: A method for mimicking a stream of self-similar traffic in a telecommunications network in which a continuous-time Poisson arrival process is applied to an M/G/∞ system, such that the continuous-time Poisson arrivals have a predetermined mean arrival rate and a predetermined service time distribution. A stream of self-similar traffic is generated based on the count process of the arrivals formed in the M/G/∞ system, such that the self-similar traffic has a selected mean arrival rate and a selected autocorrelation function. The generated stream of self-similar traffic is applied to a portion of a telecommunications network and a behavior of the portion of the telecommunications network is then simulated based on the applied stream of self-similar traffic.