Measuring instantaneous bit rate in a network connection

Methods and apparatuses described herein are configured to calculate the instantaneous bit rate of a network connection. According to certain aspects, conventional solutions measure average bit rate of a network, whereas the techniques described herein are configured to measure the instantaneous bit rate. According to further aspects, structurally, conventional solutions require external devices (hosts or servers) and a plurality of data packets for measurement, whereas the present invention is self-referenced and requires, in principle, only two network packets, of any type, for measuring the instantaneous bit rate. The instantaneous bit rate can then be used to adjust the transmission bit rate of network packets to optimize the network connection such that the bandwidth of the network connection is fully utilized and packet loss is avoided.