Patent ID: 8228815

Claim:
A method for computing data transmission characteristics of a network path, the method comprising: transmitting a packet train comprising at least one first TCP packet of a first type at a head end of the packet train, at least one second TCP packet of the first type at a tail end of the packet train, and a plurality of TCP packets of a second type placed between the head end and the tail end of the packet train, wherein each TCP packet in the packet train is addressed to an unused port on a different router along the network path and wherein the TCP packets of the first type result in a response from the router and the TCP packets of the second type do not result in a response from the router; receiving responses from each router along the network path in response to the head end of the packet train and in response to the tail end of the packet train; and using the responses to compute at least one data transmission characteristic of the network path.