Feedback-assisted robust estimation of available bandwidth

Kyung Joon Park, Hyuk Lim, Jennifer C. Hou, Chong Ho Choi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The packet pair technique is a widely used method for estimating the available bandwidth of an end-to-end network path. We characterize the stochastic nature of the packet pair dispersion caused by bursty cross traffic and its adverse effect on available bandwidth estimation. In order to overcome this difficulty, we introduce a novel concept of the relative distance, which can be obtained from the relation between input and output gaps of packet pairs. By exploiting the quasi-invariant characteristic of the relative distance, we develop a feedback-assisted, robust and non-intrusive approach for estimating the available bandwidth. The method entitled bTrack periodically sends two pairs of probe packets of different sizes and exploits the relative distance for accurate estimation of the available bandwidth. The amount of the probing traffic is independent of the available bandwidth and is adjustable by tuning of the probing period, which shows the non-intrusive nature of bTrack. We give the convergence analysis of bTrack based on the theory of the stochastic approximation, which guarantees the robust performance of bTrack under bursty cross traffic. We verify via extensive ns-2 simulations and empirical experiments (over campus intranets and the Internet) that bTrack tracks the available bandwidth very well and is not intrusive.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)896-912
Number of pages17
JournalComputer Networks
Volume53
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 May 2009

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Hou was a recipient of an ACM Recognition of Service Award in 2004 and 2007, a Cisco University Research Award from Cisco, Inc., 2002, a Lumley Research Award from Ohio State University in 2001, a NSF CAREER award from the Network and Communications Research Infrastructure, National Science Foundation in 1996–2000 and a Women in Science Initiative Award from The University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1993–1995. She was elected as an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Distinguished Scientist in 2007.

Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Grant (07SeaHeroB01-03) from Plant Technology Advancement Program funded by Ministry of Construction & Transportation of Korean government.

Keywords

  • Available bandwidth
  • Network measurement
  • Packet pair technique

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