An apparatus comprising a first node configured to couple to a second node, wherein the first node is further configured to exchange a plurality of timestamps recording transmission times and at least one of a plurality of octet counts and a plurality of frame counts with the second node to perform throughput measurements, and wherein the at least one of the plurality of octet counts and the plurality of frame counts correspond to a packet flow between the first node and the second node and are used to calculate throughput for the packet flow based on a time interval of the exchanged at least one of the plurality of octet counts and the plurality of frame counts that is determined using the timestamps.