Measuring Network PerformanceNetwork Performance can be defined as the level of the quality of service that a product of telecommunication provides, as seen from a customer perspective. It is much more than just an attempt to get more from the network. Network Performance can be measured through many different ways, because each network varies from the other in design and nature. This measurement of a network performance of a computer is denoted in units of bits per second. The quantity thus acquired can represent either a theoretical limit or an actual data rate that is available to the bandwidth of the network. One of the oldest ways of measuring the accurate response time of a web server, by using different connections of bandwidth, is the 8 Second Rule. It basically specifies that if the web pages provided by a server takes more than 8 seconds to download and display, then the users might not want to stay or stick to the page for very long. This method helped in the measurement of the network performance, thereby assisting the servers in improving the stickiness of their users. Nowadays, networks are fully competent to support large number of bps(bits per second). Thus, the requirement for the 8 second rule has elapsed. The servers are now able to provide display pages more quickly. This is so because more and more users have adopted broadband, which allows images and information to download faster. Therefore, networkers, now usually quote their quantities as gigabits, kilobits or megabits, instead of expressing them as ten thousand bps or more. This is to avoid confusion and to assist the users in remembering the status of their computer memories with more efficiency. There are a number of examples that can help you understand how Network Performance works in different networks. An explanation of a Circuit switched network and a packet switched network (ATM) might help you understand the fundamental principle behind the process. A Circuit switched network is a network that establishes a dedicated channel or circuit between terminals and nodes before communication between the users starts. The network performance in the circuit switched network is similar to the grade of service (that is , the probability of a call in a group of circuit). The number of calls rejected, is one of the measures to tell how well a network is performing under heavy loads of traffic. Echo, noise and the like are also included as measures of network performance. An ATM ( Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network is a data link layer protocol and a packet switching, cell relay network that encodes the data traffic into minimized cells of fixed size. It can be measured by QoS, line rate, Data Throughput, technology, connect time, stability, modem enhancements and modulation techniques. Therefore, a Network Performance program helps the networkers to improve their site pages, and also assist the users, by helping them save time while downloading web pages. |