How to control Download rate/ Upload rate in file-transfer using socket programming

Question

I am new to network programming and am trying to develop an application for rate controllable file transfer using socket programming in C++ for my networks' course assignment. I would like to know how to control the download rate/upload rate in file transfer. In fact, is there a way to measure the bandwidth of the host? (so that we can know the time for a data sent with the send() to be received).

Answer 1

The most common method of rate limiting is to use a token bucket. Basically, you increment a counter at the rate you want to send, then when you send the data, you decrement that counter and only send as many bytes as the counter says is available.