Patent ID: 8520678

Claim:
A method performed on a computing device, the method for measuring and returning a throughput rate of a link, the method comprising: estimating, based on a fifth value derived from a target bit rate, a data throughput rate of a plurality of estimated data throughput rates; calculating, in response to the estimated data throughput rate being less than a first value and based on the estimated data throughput rate, an average data throughput rate of a plurality of calculated average throughput rates; considering, in response to the estimated data throughput rate being less than the first value, the estimated data throughput rate to be a good measurement; returning, in response to at least one good measurement and in response to the estimated data throughput rate being less than a second value, the calculated average data throughput rate as the throughput rate of the link; increasing the target bit rate by a third value in response to the estimated data throughput rate not being less than the second value and in response to the estimated data throughput rate being greater than a fourth value; repeating the method in response to the increasing or to the estimated data throughput rate not being greater than the fourth value, and further in response to the increasing being performing less than a particular number of times, and further in response to less than a particular number of good measurements.