pathChirp

pathChirp is an active probing tool for estimating the available bandwidth on a communication network path. Based on the concept of "self-induced congestion," pathChirp features an exponential flight pattern of probes we call a chirp. Packet chirps offer several significant advantages over current probing schemes based on packet pairs or packet trains. By rapidly increasing the probing rate within each chirp, pathChirp obtains a rich set of information from which to dynamically estimate the available bandwidth.

Another of our tools, STAB, is based on pathChirp and locates available bandwidth bottlenecks.

  • You should already have the ns-2 simulator installed. You can obtain ns-2 code here.
    In the following NS-2-DIR refers
    to your ns-2.* directory (example: ns-2.27)
  • Save current files:
    Before untarring the code below, save a few ns files that will be overwritten
    so that you can revert to the original easily.

    1) cd NS-2-DIR
    2) tar -cvf original.tar Makefile.in FILES tcl/lib/ns-default.tcl tcl/lib/ns-packet.tcl common/packet.h
    In case you need to revert to the original code:

    1) cd NS-2-DIR
    2) tar -xvf original.tar
    3) make clean
    4) ./configure
    5) make depend
    6) make

  • Download Code: pathchirp_ns_2.27.tar (for ns_2.27), pathchirp_ns_2.26.tar (for ns_2.26)
    To add the pathChirp code to ns-2, copy the pathChirp_ns_2.27.tar (or pathChirp_ns_2.26.tar) file
    to NS-2-DIR and run the following commands.

    1) cd NS-2-DIR
    2) tar -xvf pathchirp_ns_2.*tar
    If you have not already saved your current files, go to the "Save current files"
    instructions above. Otherwise follow the instructions in the
    README_PATHCHIRP file OR proceed as follows.
    3) tar -xvf pathchirp_code.tar
    4) make clean
    5) ./configure
    6) make depend
    7) make
    To run an experiment using pathChirp read the README_PATHCHIRP file.

Collaborators: Les Cottrell, Jiri Navratil (SLAC)

Acknowledgements: Allen McIntosh (Telcordia), Margaret Murray (CAIDA)

Authors: Richard Baraniuk, Rudolf Riedi, Vinay Ribeiro, Ryan King, Niels Hoven
Publications: pathChirp: Efficient Available Bandwidth Estimation for Network Paths, Powerpoint: pathChirp: Efficient Available Bandwidth Estimation for Network Paths
Copyright ©2009, DSP Group, Rice University

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