Active Throughput Estimation Using RTT of Differing ICMP Packet Sizes

Network measurements always play a vital role for good network management purposes and are essential for quality of service (QoS) requirements. Packet delay derivations are critical measurement parameters in diagnosing simple network performance measures. The traditional ping tool is popular for target host connectivity testing and average delay measurements. However, ping is a poor indicator of round trip time (RTT) measurements at the network layer. In this paper, an active round trip time (RTT) packet delay measurements using Internet control message protocol (ICMP) data packets of varying sizes is proposed. It was observed that in the proposed RTT measurement technique, peak throughput values were obtained compared to the ping measurements. The proposed approach eliminates the need for special purpose cooperation and/or software applications at the destination in the measured network path when using the ICMP Echo Request/ Reply technique.