AIX Tip of the Week

Estimate of Maximum Network Throughput

Audience: All

Date: March 20, 2002

Sizing a network? If so, throughput reaches saturation at around 80 percent of its rated capacity. Given this "rule of thumb", the guidelines for the maximum network throughput are:

Formula: MB/sec = (Mb/sec)(80%)/(8Mb/MB)

Standard Disclaimer: "You mileage may vary" and these numbers are optimistic as they do not reflect other network traffic such as broadcast, SNMP, DNS or routing delays, application overhead, system load, etc.


Bruce Spencer,
baspence@us.ibm.com