Detecting cellular network bottlenecks using data allocation patterns

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor in communication with the memory and configured to:
• in response to received network traffic from a cellular network during a series of transmission slots, analyze a transport block size of respective ones of a plurality of the transmission slots;
• determine characteristics of a burst of network traffic based on the analysis of the transport block size of respective ones of a plurality of the transmission slots;
• and
• determine whether the cellular network is experiencing a bottleneck based at least in part on the characteristics of the burst of network traffic.

A method for operating a user equipment (UE) in a cellular network, the method comprising:

• receiving network traffic from the cellular network during a series of transmission slots;
• analyzing a transport block size of a plurality of transmission slots;
• determining characteristics of a burst of network traffic from the received network traffic based on said analyzing the transport block size of the plurality of transmission slots;
• and
• determining that the cellular network is experiencing a bottleneck based at least in part on the characteristics of the burst of network traffic.