Capacity/available bandwidth estimation with packet dispersion
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorAli C. Begen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Consistent with embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods are disclosed for estimating at least one of a capacity and an available bandwidth of a communications path. Methods may be disclosed comprising: sending a measurement request to a computing device on a network and receiving data responsive to the measurement request. At least one of a capacity and an available bandwidth of a communications path from the sender to the computing device may be estimated based on the received data. The estimation may be sent to the computing device and stored. Transmission settings may be adjusted based on the estimation.
Claims19
A method comprising:
- sending a plurality of periodic measurement requests to a first computing device on a network, wherein the periodic measurement requests comprise requests to measure the capacity for a class which can carry a plurality of repair streams;
- receiving data responsive to the measurement requests at a second computing device, wherein the received data responsive to the measurement requests comprises a STUN or RTP/RTCP packet train of a requested length and an average dispersion between the STUN or RTP/RTCP packets in the packet train is measured, wherein the requested length differs in subsequent measurement requests, and wherein the Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) or Real-Time Transfer Protocol/RTP Control Protocol (RTP/RTCP) packets each have unique identifiers;
- estimating at least one of a capacity and an available bandwidth of a communications path from the first computing device to the second computing device based on the received data;
- sending the estimation to the first computing device;
- storing the estimation;
- sending the estimation to a remote quality monitoring tool remote from the first computing device and the second computing device;
- and
- adjusting transmission settings based on the estimation.
A system comprising:
- a server capable of initiating a bandwidth probe and of sending a plurality of periodic probing Real-Time Transfer Protocol/RTP Control Protocol (RTP/RTCP) packets to a client located across a wide area network in response to the bandwidth probe, wherein the periodic probing packets comprise requests to measure the capacity for a class which can carry a plurality of repair streams;
- a processor associated with the client programmed to estimate at least one of a capacity and an available bandwidth based on the received data, the processor further programmed to send the estimation results to the server;
- a memory capable of storing received estimation results, wherein the received estimation results comprises a RTP/RTCP packet train of a requested length and an average dispersion between the RTP/RTCP packets in the packet train is measured, wherein the requested length differs in subsequent measurement requests, and wherein the RTP/RTCP packets each have unique identifiers;
- and
- a processor associated with the server programmed to adjust transmission settings based on the estimation results.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for analyzing network conditions, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:
- determining that a bandwidth probe needs to be initiated based on a request, received from a client device, to initiate the bandwidth probe;
- initiating a bandwidth probe, wherein the bandwidth probe comprises a plurality of periodically sent the Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) or Real-Time Transfer Protocol/RTP Control Protocol (RTP/RTCP) packets, wherein the packets comprise requests to measure the capacity for a class which can carry a plurality of repair streams;
- estimating at least one of a capacity and an available bandwidth;
- storing the estimations, wherein the estimations comprise a RTP/RTCP packet train of a requested length and an average dispersion between the RTP/RTCP packets in the packet train is measured, wherein the requested length differs in subsequent measurement requests, and wherein the RTP/RTCP packets each have unique identifiers;
- and
- adjusting network transmission settings based on the estimation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.