Patent ID: 8767557

Claim:
A method of determining a data flow metric in a wireless communication system, comprising: sending a plurality of test packets to a plurality of wireless devices in communication with an access node; determining a first inter-arrival gap and a first physical resource block-to-transmission time interval (PRB-TTI) ratio for each of the plurality of wireless devices during a first time period, and a first comparison of the first inter-arrival gap to the first PRB-TTI ratio for each wireless device; determining a second inter-arrival gap and a second PRB-TTI ratio for each wireless device during a second time period, and a second comparison of the second inter-arrival gap to the second PRB-TTI ratio for each of the plurality of wireless devices; and determining whether a data flow metric of the access node meets a data flow criteria based on the first and second comparisons, wherein the data flow metric comprises an indication of data flow burstiness of the access node.