End-to-End Available Bandwidth Measurement Tools : A Comparative Evaluation of Performances

In recent years, there has been a strong interest in measuring the available bandwidth of network paths. Several methods and techniques have been proposed and various measurement tools have been developed and evaluated. However, there have been few comparative studies with regards to the actual performance of these tools. This paper presents a study of available bandwidth measurement techniques and undertakes a comparative analysis in terms of accuracy, intrusiveness and response time of active probing tools. Finally, measurement errors and the uncertainty of the tools are analysed and overall conclusions made.