A "Burst Ratio" is defined for use as a measure of the burstiness of a packet-based network. One illustrative implementation of the Burst Ratio (R) is where R is equal to the ratio of the average length of observed bursts in a packet arrival sequence over the average length of bursts expected for a random loss packet-based network. Another illustrative implementation of the Burst Ratio (R) is in the context of a 2-state Markov model, wherein R=1/(1+-;), and is the probability of losing packet n if packet n-;1 was found (i.e., the probability of losing the next packet if the current packet was received) and represents the probability of losing packet n if packet n-;1 was lost (i.e., the probability of losing the next packet if the current packet was lost).