International Journal of Computer Science Issues

More than a traditional journal...

In a packet network, the term bandwidth often characterizes the amount of data that the network can transfer per unit of time. Measuring an accurate network bandwidth is important to a variety of network applications so the techniques for accurate bandwidth estimation are important to optimize end-to-end transport performance, overlay network routing, peer-to-peer file distribution and capacity planning support. Existing bandwidth estimation tools such as using throughput, Pathchar, and Packet Pair measure one or more of three related metrics: capacity, available bandwidth, and bulk transfer capacity. Currently available bandwidth estimation tools employ a variety of strategies to measure these metrics. Current bandwidth measurement techniques have many problems: poor accuracy, poor scalability, lack of statistical robustness, poor agility in adapting to bandwidth changes, lack of flexibility in deployment. In this paper we propose a solution for these problems through a simple tool for actively measuring available bandwidth along a network path. This tool uses a mechanism that exploits data packets transmitted in a TCP connection. The sender adjusts the transmission intervals of data packets, and then estimates available bandwidth of the network path between sender and receiver utilizing the arrival ACK from the receiver.