Unbiased bandwidth estimation in communication protocols

In this paper we focus on bandwidth estimation and elucidate why estimates based directly on bandwidth samples are biased. Previously, this phenomenon has been observed but not properly explained, it seems. Standard techniques for bandwidth estimation are based on measurements of inter-arrival times of packets as the bandwidth is proportional to the inverse of the inter-arrival time. Two main classes of bandwidth estimators are analyzed wrt how variations in the inter-arrival times affect the estimates. It is shown that linear time-invariant filtering of instantaneous bandwidth estimates does not change the bias. In contrast to this, smoothing the inter-arrival-time samples does give a bias reduction which depends on the properties of the smoothing filter. Hence, which such approach, noise attenuation can be traded against tracking ability wrt changes in the actual bandwidth.