Analysis of minimal backlogging-based available bandwidth estimation mechanism

This paper analyzes the minimal backlogging-based available bandwidth estimation mechanism to strengthen the theory behind the mechanism. The minimal backlogging method estimates the available bandwidth using the statistic of the probing traffic service rate. We show that the statistic of the probing traffic service rate is a consistent estimator of the available bandwidth for a G/G/1 queueing system under minimal backlogging condition to support the minimal backlogging method theoretically. In order to emulate the minimal backlogging method in a real multi-hop network, we detect the minimal backlogging condition or closeness of the probing rate to the available bandwidth based on the busy period length, and change the probing rate adaptively to maintain the minimal backlogging condition. We explain that the minimal backlogging condition or available bandwidth might be detected more accurately by the busy period of probing packets than by the gap response curve or rate response curve, and enhance the minimal backlogging method further by introducing a new initial probing rate estimation mechanism. A reasonable range of available bandwidth for a short time interval can be obtained using the mean and variance of the estimated available bandwidth, since the proposed mechanism can estimate the available bandwidth quickly and track it adaptively. The proposed mechanism is implemented in a Linux environment. The performance of our scheme is compared to those of conventional available bandwidth estimation mechanisms through experiments on a test-bed with single-hop or multiple-hop topologies.