Patent ID: 8437255

Claim:
A method for determining an estimated level of occupancy for a buffer of a processing device in a communication system that comprises: a data source that sends packets of information; the processing device that receives the packets of information from the data source, stores information for at least some of the packets in the buffer, and transmits packets of information along a communication channel for reception by one or more receivers; a receiver that receives packets of information from the communication channel that were transmitted by one or more devices including at least some of the packets of information that were transmitted by the processing device; and the method comprises: identifying a selected packet from the packets of information received by the receiver that conveys data indicating the selected packet was received by the receiver as a result of a first attempt by the processing device to transmit the selected packet; recording a receiving time for the selected packet when it was received by the receiver; monitoring the communication channel to detect transmissions by any of the one or more devices; calculating a length of time immediately prior to the receiving time of the selected packet during which no transmissions along the communication channel were detected; comparing the length of time to a first wait-interval threshold; and determining the estimated level of occupancy for the buffer to be zero if the length of time exceeds the first wait-interval threshold and generating a signal conveying information that represents the estimated level of occupancy for the buffer.