Patent ID: 8825831

Claim:
A method for obtaining information about a transmission capability of a transmission link (TL), wherein a sending entity (SE) sends data packets at a sending rate to the transmission link (TL) which transmits the data packets according to its transmission capability to a receiving entity (RE) receiving the data packets at a receiving rate, the method comprising: modulating the sending rate with a rate modulation; and executing the following steps by an analysis entity (AE), the AE monitoring data flow between the SE and the RE over the TL: obtaining a measurement of the sending rate over at least a portion of a period of time in which the sending rate is modulated; obtaining a measurement of the receiving rate over at least the portion of the period of time in which the sending rate is modulated; comparing the obtained measurement of the sending rate and the obtained measurement of the receiving rate to determine a relation of the obtained measurement of the sending rate and the obtained measurement of the receiving rate; determining whether the rate modulation of the sending rate substantially affects the receiving rate based on the determined relation; and obtaining the information about the transmission capability based on the determination of whether the rate modulation of the sending rate substantially affects the receiving rate.