ExcellingIT

Bandwidth constraints:

Network capacity, or bandwidth, is the number of bits a network connection or interface can carry in a given period of time. It is measured in bps (bits-per-second), Kbps, Mbps or Gbps. The greater the bandwidth, the greater the number of concurrent application sessions the link can serve (for a given transaction) and the greater the rate that each application session can consume from the network.

Bandwidth Utilization:

Bandwidth utilization is a measure of how much of the link’s maximum data rate is being used. Consider an intuitive notion of utilization - it may start by picturing the WAN circuit as a pipe of a certain diameter and then imagining that it is partly filled with something we call traffic. Bandwidth utilization is a factor of the number of concurrent application sessions across the link and the average rate used by each session. For example, if a T1 link (1544 Kbps) serves an average of 20 concurrent application sessions and each session uses 50 Kbps on average each way then we would say that the link is 64.7% utilized ((50 Kbps * 20 sessions)/1544 kbps = 64.7%).

Starting at 70% BU, network performance starts to degrade, 80% badly degraded, and 90+% “Flooded”. Smaller pipes, are subject to easier flooding, which will cause significant increased latency and jitter

Tags: Bandwidth, Network Imairments, Network Impairments

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Network Impairments, Network Latency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.