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Communication networks grow exponentially in this globalization era; thus, the network traffic modelling and prediction plays a crucial role in network management and security warning. Solely, the multi-step network traffic prediction may involve greater errors hence worsening prediction performance. To overcome this problem, an optimized echo state network model with selective error compensation is proposed. In the optimized echo state network-based multi-step prediction model, an improved fruit–fly optimization algorithm based on cloud model (named LVCMFOA) is used to select optimum values of four key parameters of the model. The proposed LVCMFOA algorithm uses the levy-flight function to redefine the generation of the fruit–fly population, which can randomly change the search radius and help getting out of a possible local optimal solution and prevent local optimum. To reduce the calculation time but improve the prediction accuracy simultaneously, a sophisticated selective error compensation strategy employing the variable sliding window technology is proposed so as to avoid the error accumulation problem in the multi-step prediction. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by applying it to Henon mapping chaotic series, Mackey–Glass chaotic series and two public network traffic data sets all known in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]