The first in a series of articles on performance.
Let's face it; we all enjoy speedy access to websites, apps, and data. There are many complex factors, however, that contribute to that experience. The one factor we most associate with fast response is 'bandwidth'. Bandwidth is actually a misnomer for data rate (see note below), or the speed of our network connections conveyed in bits per second (bps). The higher the data rate, the more information that can be sent per second. Put simply, the faster we send the data, the quicker the response.
The case of 'low' bandwidth ...
A friend of mine called me recently to discuss the difficulties they were having at home and how they might address them. They were experiencing slow website response, slow game play, and pausing of video on all of their devices (PCs, iPads, phones, and TVs). The poor performance was also occurring when several people in the house were watching NetFlix or other videos and playing online games at the same time. They were suffering from congestion; a condition where the demand for data exceeded the data rate of the network. He wondered if getting a router with faster WiFi would help. It would not in his case. The speed of his existing WiFi was faster than the connection coming into his house. The solution would have to be higher data rate from their Internet Service Provider (ISP) or they would simply have to be judicious with the use of the Internet (e.g. not playing games while watching TV).
It's a problem we all face with any shared resource (e.g. roads). The Internet is one big shared network and the congestion my friends experienced at home can be experienced by all of us on a broader scale. Have you noticed that Internet performance varies at different times of the day? Is response faster in the early morning when people are getting ready for work and school, but slower when the 'gamers' get home from school in the afternoon? Yes it is.
The problem then that we all face is the ever increasing demand for data. With the massive proliferation of video and smart phones, watches, TVs, cars, and other home devices, we don't even realize how much data is being sent over our own networks. Thankfully, our ISPs, coffee shops, and businesses try to keep pace with that demand (for the most part). But, bandwidth is NOT infinite anywhere on the planet.
So, when you're experiencing poor performance at least think about how judicious you're being with your own devices and network first. Are you running applications on your phone that you are not using (and draining your battery)? Do you have computers, TVs, and appliances turned on that you are not using? Those applications and devices are sending and receiving data frequently even when they are not in use.
We'll cover other aspects of performance, how to uncover performance problems, and tune or optimize performance in upcoming articles. Until then, don't hesitate to contact us to ask questions or provide us feedback. We'd love to hear from you.
NOTE: What is bandwidth? Bandwidth and data rate are closely related which is why they are often used interchangeably. To send data between computers, it needs to be converted into an electrical signal or wave. It is the electrical wave that propagates over air or wires. The conversion of data into an electrical wave is called encoding (the reverse being called decoding). Encoding involves the use of a band of frequencies to create a specific waveform. That range of frequencies used in the band is known as the width of the band, or bandwidth. The higher the frequency, the faster the wave. The wider the band, the more data that can be encoded.
