Enhancing network link state estimation by incorporating passive packet pair measurement into the Mockets transport protocol

Abstract

Thanks to their limited network footprint, passive approaches to bandwidth estimation are particularly interesting when applied to resource constrained network environments such as tactical networks. Regrettably, passive approaches are typically afflicted by lower accuracy when compared to active bandwidth detection techniques that operate by saturating the pipe or otherwise injecting probing traffic. To overcome this limitation, we designed Passive Packet Pair (P3), a passive version of the packet pair bandwidth estimation mechanism. P3 assesses the bandwidth available over the end-to-end path by measuring differences in the inter-arrival times of packet pairs or trains produced at the transport protocol level starting from application-generated traffic. This paper presents P3 and discusses its integration with Mockets, a communications middleware that provides transport protocol capabilities to applications running in tactical networks, and SENSEI, a passive monitoring and network awareness platform. Finally, the article discusses the results of experiments run in a virtual environment with the goal of evaluating the accuracy of P3 under different system conditions.