US Patent 7139692 Flow propagation analysis using iterative signaling

A method and system for flow propagation analysis uses ‘tracers’ that are iteratively propagated through a simulated network between source and destination elements. These tracers are structured to contain traffic flow information from source to destination, and to reflect changes as the flow is affected by each element along the path from source to destination. The resultant flow information at the destination corresponds to the effective throughput from the source to the destination, and the flow information at the output of each intermediate element in the network corresponds to the potentially achievable throughput through that element for the given source-to-destination flow.