A Contribution to the System-Theoretic Approach to Bandwidth Estimation

The network calculus provides a theoretical background for description of traffic in computer networks. Using this tool in explanation of the so-called pathchirp method of measuring the available bandwidth, the validity and range of application of some relationships exploited are verified in this paper. The derivations are carried out in a wider context than that considered in a recent paper by Liebeherr et al. published in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking on network bandwidth estimation, providing thereby new insights and outcomes. These results, summarized in a table, show a means of bounding the service curve, depending upon its convexity or non-convexity property assumed and upon the linearity or non-linearity of a network considered. Moreover, it is shown here that the nonlinear network example analyzed by Liebeherr et al. can be viewed equivalently as a linear parametric network. For this network, the behaviour of the cross traffic is considered in a more detail, too.