Patent ID: 8462625

Claim:
A method for passive estimation of throughput in a network, the method comprising: collecting a flow record for each data flow of a plurality of data flows during a predetermined time interval, wherein the plurality of data flows are associated with computing devices in the network; annotating the flow record for each data flow to include an application field and a content provider field, wherein the application field indicates an application protocol and the content provider field indicates a content provider with which each data flow is in communication; determining a flow type, by utilizing instructions from memory that are executed by a processor, for each data flow based on the application field and the content provider field of the flow record, wherein the flow type comprises one of a rate-capped flow type, a partially rate-limited flow type, and a non-rate-limited flow type; generating a throughput index, wherein the throughput index comprises the flow type of each data flow if the flow type is determined to be the non-rate-limited flow type; selecting each data flow having the flow type in the throughput index; and estimating an average maximum throughput for each data flow selected.