[Paper Review] DietTopp: A first implementation and evaluation of a simplified bandwidth measurement method

Andreas Johnsson, Bob Melander+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jan 16, 2023

Advanced Optical Network Technologies24 citations

TL;DR

DietTopp is an active available bandwidth measurement tool that estimates available bandwidth and bottleneck link capacity using a simplified TOPP method, evaluated against Pathload and Pathrate in a testbed.

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the active available bandwidth measurement tool DietTopp. It measures the available bandwidth and the link capacity on an end-to-end path having one bottleneck link. DietTopp is based on a simplified TOPP method. This paper describe and motivate the simplifications and assumptions made to TOPP. Further, the paper describes some of the DietTopp implementation issues. A first evaluation of DietTopp in a testbed scenario is made. Within this evaluation the performance and measurement accuracy of DietTopp is compared to the state-of-the-art tools Pathload and Pathrate. We show that DietTopp gives fast and accurate estimations of both the available bandwidth and the link capacity of the bottleneck link.

Motivation & Objective

• Motivate and describe the simplifications and assumptions applied to the TOPP method for practical bandwidth measurement.
• Present DietTopp as an active tool to measure available bandwidth and bottleneck link capacity on end-to-end paths.
• Explain implementation issues encountered during DietTopp development.
• Provide an initial evaluation in a testbed and compare performance to state-of-the-art tools Pathload and Pathrate.

Proposed method

• Describe the simplified TOPP-based approach used by DietTopp to measure available bandwidth and bottleneck capacity.
• Identify and justify the simplifications and assumptions made relative to the original TOPP method.
• Outline implementation considerations and potential issues in DietTopp.
• Conduct a first evaluation in a testbed scenario to assess accuracy and performance.
• Compare DietTopp measurements with Pathload and Pathrate to evaluate estimation speed and accuracy.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Can DietTopp accurately estimate the available bandwidth on a path with a single bottleneck link?
• RQ2 Can DietTopp reliably estimate the bottleneck link capacity (link capacity) on the same path?
• RQ3 How does DietTopp's performance (speed and accuracy) compare to Pathload and Pathrate in a testbed environment?

Key findings

• DietTopp provides fast estimations of both the available bandwidth and the bottleneck link capacity.
• DietTopp measurements are evaluated in a testbed and compared to Pathload and Pathrate.
• The study demonstrates that DietTopp can achieve accurate bandwidth measurements with a simplified approach.
• The implementation considerations and simplifications are motivated by the need for a practical bandwidth measurement tool.