Without using additional probing packets, estimates of the narrow link bandwidth and available bandwidth of a network path are computed based on existing traffic. The network can be of different types such as a
wireless battlefield network context or a wired or
wireless commercial network environment. “Fast packets”, i.e. those packets which do not experience any
queuing delay in the network, are identified. Fast packets are identified to resolve end-to-end packet
delay into its constituent components (deterministic, transmission and queuing delays), estimate path utilization and eliminate the uncertainty (false alarms) that causes the prior art method to lose its effectiveness. An
estimation algorithm computes end-to-end
transmission delay and end-to-end deterministic
delay of fast packets traveling along a path in a network. Examples of deterministic
delay include
satellite propagation delays and
clock effects. Then, based on the results of the fast packet identifying
algorithm, two logic branches are followed. A first
branch calculates utilization and a second
branch calculates narrow link bandwidth. The narrow link bandwidth is determined from the packet pair dispersion. The available bandwidth is obtained from the narrow link bandwidth and the utilization.
Estimation of available bandwidth for an end-to-end network path allows traffic sources to judiciously regulate the volume of application traffic injected into the network.