Bandwidth

In electronics, bandwidth is the width of the range (also called the band) of frequencies used by a signal in an electronic transmission medium.

In an IT networking context, bandwidth refers to the data rate that can be supported by a given network connection or interface. However, bandwidth is just one factor in determining the actual speed” of a network. System latency is also an important consideration in network and network application performance.

Bandwidth is typically expressed in bits of data per second (or bps). It can also be expressed as bytes per second (or Bps).

High bandwidth — The term high bandwidth is frequently used to distinguish Internet connections that are faster than traditional dial-up access speeds. High bandwidth connections typically support data rates of at least 64 Kbps and more commonly 200 Kbps or 300 Kbps or higher.

Measuring bandwidth — You can measure the bandwidth of network connections using various tools. Available tools for LANS include netperf and ttcp. You can also find a variety bandwidth testing apps on the Web, many of them free. In most cases, however, all users learn is that bandwidth is highly variable that is difficult to measure across different platforms. Multiple layers of hardware and software, as well as time sharing, almost inevitably constrain network architectures and limit bandwidth.

All of application and server management industry leader Idera’s products are designed from the ground up to minimize bandwidth utilization. Idera’s SQL Traffic Accelerator improves data transfer performance while reducing bandwidth utilization. Utilizing advanced compression of both the transportation and application layers, SQL Traffic Accelerator significantly boosts data transfer speed and reduces the bandwidth required to get the job done.