End-to-End Available Bandwidth Measurement Tools : A Comparative Evaluation of Performances

TL;DR

This paper compares various active probing tools for measuring network available bandwidth, analyzing their accuracy, intrusiveness, response time, errors, and uncertainties to evaluate their performance comprehensively.

Contribution

It provides a comparative evaluation of existing available bandwidth measurement tools focusing on their performance metrics.

Findings

Different tools vary significantly in accuracy and response time.

Measurement errors and uncertainties are critical factors affecting reliability.

Some tools demonstrate a good balance between intrusiveness and accuracy.

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a strong interest in measuring the available bandwidth of network paths. Several methods and techniques have been proposed and various measurement tools have been developed and evaluated. However, there have been few comparative studies with regards to the actual performance of these tools. This paper presents a study of available bandwidth measurement techniques and undertakes a comparative analysis in terms of accuracy, intrusiveness and response time of active probing tools. Finally, measurement errors and the uncertainty of the tools are analysed and overall conclusions made.