Patent ID: 7633869

Claim:
A method for estimating available upstream data rate of a network link comprising the steps of: sending a first data packet to a remote system, wherein the first data packet is configured to cause the remote system to generate a first response; receiving the first response from the remote system; measuring elapsed time between the sending of the first data packet and the receiving of the first response from the remote system to produce a first measured time; sending one or more padding packets of a first size to the remote system, the one or more padding packets each including data which does not cause the remote system to generate a response; sending a second data packet to the remote system, wherein the second data packet is configured to cause the remote system to generate a second response; receiving the second response from the remote system; measuring elapsed time between the sending of the padding packet and the receiving of the second response from the remote system to produce a second measured time; and responsive to the first size, the first measured time, and the second measured time, calculating an estimation of the available upstream data rate.