Spatio-temporal Available Bandwidth Estimation for High-speed Networks

We present a new packet dispersion based active probing scheme for available bandwidth estimation that (1) overcomes system I/O bandwidth limitations on high-speed (>1Gbps) networks and (2) determines the location of a path’s tight link. The scheme is based on the packet-tailgating technique earlier used for link capacity estimation and topology identification. Available bandwidth estimation and tight link localization benefits network-aware applications like high-speed grid computing, overlay network routing and server selection. Tight link localization also provides insight into the causes of network congestion and ways to circumvent it.