A Change-of-Measure Approach to Per- Flow Delay Measurement Combining Passive and Active Methods: Mathematical Formulation for CoMPACT Monitor

Abstract

One problem with active measurement is that, while it is suitable for measuring time-average network performance, it is difficult to measure per-flow quality of service (QoS), which is defined as the average over packets in the flow. To achieve such per-flow QoS measurement, the authors proposed a new technique, called the change- of- measure-based passive/active monitoring (CoMPACT Monitor), which is based on the change-of-measure framework in probability/measure theory and transforms actively obtained information by using passively monitored data. This technique enables us to concurrently measure one-way delay information about individual users, applications, and organizations in detail in a lightweight manner. This paper presents the mathematical formulation for the CoMPACT Monitor and verifies that it works well under some weak conditions. In addition, we investigate its characteristics regarding several implementation issues through simulation and actual network experiments. The results reveal that our technique provides highly qualified estimates involving only a limited amount of extra traffic from active probes.