NETWORK BANDWIDTH MEASUREMENT

• US 20090319233A1
• Filed: 06/24/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Klemets, Anders E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,948,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/28 characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] wireless communication networks H04W ; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate

Abstract

Technologies for measuring a data throughput rate of a link typically use for transferring media catalogs and media between a media provider and an UPnP Control Point.

Claims

1. A method for measuring a data throughput rate of a link, the method comprising:

setting a Target Bit Rate to a value representing bits per second;

calculating a size of a data array based on the Target Bit Rate and a desired transfer time;

determining an estimate of a data throughput rate of the link, the estimate based on an actual amount of time to transfer the data array of size number of bytes, or a portion thereof, over the link;

adding the estimate to a average if the estimate is less that a multiple of the Target Bit Rate; and

returning a measured data throughput rate based on the average if the estimate is less than a fraction of the Target Bit Rate.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising increasing the Target Bit Rate by a multiple of the Target Bit Rate and repeating the calculating, the adding, and the returning if the estimate is greater than the fraction of the Target Bit Rate and if the estimate is greater than another multiple of the Target Bit Rate.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating the calculating, the adding, and the returning if the estimate is greater than the fraction of the Target Bit Rate and if the estimate is less than or equal to another multiple of the Target Bit Rate.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed at least in part via a Universal Plug and Play (“

UPnP”

) action.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the UPnP action is defined as a custom extension of an UPnP service.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed prior to downloading a media catalog from a media provider.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired transfer time is two seconds or less.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the size of the data array is less than one megabyte.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the Target Bit Rate is initially set to 128,000 bits per second and the size of the data array is 32 kilobytes.

10. A computer-readable medium embodying computer-readable instructions for performing a method for measuring a data throughput rate of a link, the method comprising:

setting a Target Bit Rate to a value representing bits per second;

calculating a size of a data array based on the Target Bit Rate and a desired transfer time;

determining an estimate of a data throughput rate of the link, the estimate based on an actual amount of time to transfer the data array of size number of bytes, or a portion thereof, over the link;

adding the estimate to a average if the estimate is less that a multiple of the Target Bit Rate; and

returning a measured data throughput rate based on the average if the estimate is less than a fraction of the Target Bit Rate.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising increasing the Target Bit Rate by a multiple of the Target Bit Rate and repeating the calculating, the adding, and the returning if the estimate is greater than the fraction of the Target Bit Rate and if the estimate is greater than another multiple of the Target Bit Rate.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising repeating the calculating, the adding, and the returning if the estimate is greater than the fraction of the Target Bit Rate and if the estimate is less than or equal to another multiple of the Target Bit Rate.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the determining is performed at least in part via a Universal Plug and Play (“

UPnP”

) action.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the UPnP action is defined as a custom extension of an UPnP service.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the method is performed prior to downloading a media catalog from a media provider.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the desired transfer time is two seconds or less.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the size of the data array is less than one megabyte.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the Target Bit Rate is initially set to 128,000 bits per second and the size of the data array is 32 kilobytes.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the multiple is four.

20. A method for measuring a data throughput rate of a link, the method comprising:

setting a Target Bit Rate to a value representing bits per second;

calculating a size of a data array based on the Target Bit Rate and a desired transfer time;

determining an estimate of a data throughput rate of the link, the estimate based on an actual amount of time to transfer the data array of size number of bytes, or a portion thereof, over the link, wherein the determining is performed at least in part via a Universal Plug and Play (“

UPnP”

) action and wherein the UPnP action is defined as a custom extension of an UPnP service;

adding the estimate to a average if the estimate is less that a multiple of the Target Bit Rate;

returning a measured data throughput rate based on the average if the estimate is less than a fraction of the Target Bit Rate.

increasing the Target Bit Rate by a multiple of the Target Bit Rate and repeating the calculating, the adding, and the returning if the estimate is greater than the fraction of the Target Bit Rate and if the estimate is greater than another multiple of the Target Bit Rate; and

repeating the calculating, the adding, the returning, and the increasing if the estimate is greater than the fraction of the Target Bit Rate and if the estimate is less than or equal to double the Target Bit Rate.