Like bandwidth, throughput is the measure of the transfer of bits across the media over a given period of time. However, due to a number of factors, throughput does not usually match the specified bandwidth. Many factors influence throughput including:
• The amount of data being sent and received over the connection
• The types of data being transmitted
• The latency created by the number of network devices encountered between source and destination
Latency refers to the amount of time, including delays, for data to travel from one given point to another.
Throughput measurements do not take into account the validity or usefulness of the bits being transmitted and received. Many messages received through the network are not destined for specific user applications. An example would be network control messages that regulate traffic and correct errors.
In an internetwork or network with multiple segments, throughput cannot be faster than the slowest link of the path from sending device to the receiving device. Even if all or most of the segments have high bandwidth, it will only take one segment in the path with lower bandwidth to create a slowdown of the throughput of the entire network.
There are many online speed tests that can reveal the throughput of an internet connection.
Refer to the online course to view this video.
Check Your Understanding – Bandwidth and Throughput (1.3.4)
Refer to the online course to complete this activity.
Communications in a Connected World Summary (1.4)
The following is a summary of each topic in the chapter and some questions for your reflection.
What Did I Learn in this Module? (1.4.1)
• Network Types—The internet is not owned by any individual or group. The internet is a worldwide collection of interconnected networks (internetwork or internet for short), cooperating with each other to exchange information using common standards. Through telephone wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless transmissions, and satellite links, internet users can exchange information in a variety of forms.
Small home networks connect a few computers to each other and to the internet. The SOHO network allows computers in a home office or a remote office to connect to a corporate network, or access centralized, shared resources. Medium to large networks, such as those used by corporations and schools, can have many locations with hundreds or thousands of interconnected hosts. The internet is a network of networks that connects hundreds of millions of computers world-wide.
There are devices all around that you may interact with on a daily basis that are also connected to the internet. These include mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and smart glasses. Things in your home can be connected to the internet such as a security system, appliances, your smart TV, and your gaming console. Outside your home there are smart cars, RFID tags, sensors and actuators, and even medical devices which can be connected.
• Data Transmission—The following categories are used to classify types of personal data:
• Volunteered data—This is created and explicitly shared by individuals, such as social network profiles. This type of data might include video files, pictures, text, or audio files.
• Observed data—This is captured by recording the actions of individuals, such as location data when using cell phones.
• Inferred data—This is data such as a credit score, which is based on analysis of volunteered or observed data.
The term bit is an abbreviation of “binary digit” and represents the smallest piece of data. Each bit can only have one of two possible values, 0 or 1.
There are three common methods of signal transmission used in networks:
• Electrical signals —Transmission is achieved by representing data as electrical pulses on copper wire.
• Optical signals—Transmission is achieved by converting the electrical signals into light pulses.
• Wireless signals—Transmission is achieved by using infrared, microwave, or radio waves through the air.
• Bandwidth and Throughput—Bandwidth is the capacity of a medium to carry data. Digital bandwidth measures the amount of data that can flow from one place to another in a given amount of time. Bandwidth is typically measured in the number of bits that (theoretically) can be sent across the media in a second. Common bandwidth measurements are as follows:
• Thousands of bits per second (Kbps or Kb/s)
• Millions of bits per second (Mbps or Mb/s)
• Billions of bits per second (Gbps or Gb/s)
Throughput does not usually match the specified bandwidth. Many factors influence throughput including:
• The amount of data being sent and received over the connection
• The types of data being transmitted
• The latency created by the number of network devices encountered between source and destination
Latency refers to the amount of time, including delays, for data to travel from one given point to another.
Maybe you don’t work in a hospital, but if you are here now it’s because, like Kishori, you use computers and want to know more about networks. Did you know that the internet is a massive network of networks that are connected, either directly or indirectly, to each other? It’s kind of like this web that I live in. One part can be broken but my web doesn’t fall apart; I can fix it, and even make it stronger. Would you like to be able to do that for your network?