On the feasibility of bandwidth estimation in 1x EVDO networks

Abstract

The problem of bandwidth estimation has been extensively studied in the wired Internet and recently, in 802.11 wireless networks, however, no tool has been developed so far for cellular networks. Although cellular networks share many common characteristics with 802.11 WLANs, they also have many differences which make it unclear whether tools developed for 802.11 WLANs can also be used in cellular networks. This paper presents the first study of the feasibility of fast bandwidth estimation in 3G networks. We study the applicability of a state-of-the-art probe-based tool for 802.11 WLANs on a commercial 1x EVDO network. We find that estimating bandwidth with a probe-based tool is very difficult in EVDO networks, due to the short-scale dynamics in this type of networks.

Characterization of a 3G EV-DO network - A measurement study

“…Koutsonikolas and Hu [1] use WBest [7] to estimate the achievable throughput of an EV-DO terminal. Their experimental results show that WBest fails to measure the achievable throughput defined either by the maximum TCP throughput or the maximum UDP throughput.…”

“…An interesting phenomena is that the measured TCP throughput in [5] and [1] exhibit different properties. For example, [5] observes TCP throughput being in the 300 to 350 kbps range and reasonably stable over a 24 hour period, while [1] sees TCP throughput changes much more drastically (e.g., for one specific location, TCP throughput is measured at 700 kbps at 4am and about 350 kbps at 10am).…”

“…For example, [5] observes TCP throughput being in the 300 to 350 kbps range and reasonably stable over a 24 hour period, while [1] sees TCP throughput changes much more drastically (e.g., for one specific location, TCP throughput is measured at 700 kbps at 4am and about 350 kbps at 10am). A possible explanation of this difference is the year the two sets of measurement are taken, 2006 for [5] and 2009 for [1]. The worldwide number of EV-DO subscribers had grown from 65 million in 2006 [8] to 127 million in 2009 [9].…”

“…The worldwide number of EV-DO subscribers had grown from 65 million in 2006 [8] to 127 million in 2009 [9]. Although service providers may have built additional network infrastructure to accommodate the increased number of users, the increased density of the EV-DO user population may have caused the throughput variability observed in [1].…”

“…However, historically, bandwidth estimation explorations have only considered cases where the last hop is either a wired LAN or an IEEE 802.11 wireless access point. Bandwidth estimation research for cellular networks is challenging, with only sparse published measurements, due to: the volatile nature of mobile wireless transmissions, limited access by external researchers to proprietary cellular network infrastructures, difficulties in managing controlled measurements over cellular network infrastructures, and no proven, publicly-available cellular network simulators [1], [2]. This paper presents measurement studies of the widely deployed 3G EV-DO Rev.…”