Objective Under noninvasive positive pressure ventilation, in view of inconvenient operations in human airway, and avoiding the interference of spontaneous breathing and the necessary leakage flow, the method for dynamic online monitoring of the respiratory resistance (R) and compliance (C) was studied.Methods At the end of expiration, when the exhaled flow was 0, relative to the expiration positive airway pressure (EPAP), a step-dropped pressure was produced with the amplitude Δp and hold time Δt. Under this dropped pressure, a short-time discharged flow was generated from the lung, and the discharged flow was applied to calculate the R and C. In addition, a respiratory model was developed in MATLAB to simulate the breaths of normal adult, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patient and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient. A serial of simulation experiments were carried out for obtaining data and verification.Results The calculated R and C from simulation for normal adult, ARDS patient, COPD patient, deviated from the actual value by 1.60% and -1.60%, 1.21% and -1.19%, -12.53% and 14.32%, respectively.Conclusions The proposed algorithm is practicable and feasible for calculating the R and C. The simulation results are beneficial for studying and realizing the intelligent ventilation and proportional assist ventilation in respirator.