Patent ID: 7660261

Claim:
A method for computing a capacity of a network path, the method comprising: sending a packet train, the packet train comprising: at least one TCP packet of a first type at a head end of the packet train, each head end packet being addressed to an unused port on a different router along the network path, at least one TCP packet of the first type at a tail end of the packet train, each tail end packet being addressed to an unused port on a different router along the network path, such that there is one head end packet and one tail end packet addressed to each router along the network path, and a plurality of TCP packets of a second type as load packets between the head end and the tail end, wherein the TCP packets of the first type result in a reply from the routers, and the TCP packets of the second type do not result in a reply from the routers; receiving, from each router along the network path, a first reply TCP packet of a third type in response to a head end packet and a second reply TCP packet of the third type in response to a tail end packet; determining a time delay between the first and second reply packets received from each router; determining a dispersion value for each router based on the corresponding time delay of the router; and computing a capacity of the network path based on the length of the packet train and the maximum of the dispersion values.