Ultimately to fix a bandwidth issue, you should upgrade the overall capacity at the site. If you are not able to upgrade or need to buy time, then implementing QoS features to manage which traffic is less important to the business and have it shaped or dropped during times of congestion.
Contrary to popular belief, QoS does not create more throughput. It does create better “goodput,” with critical applications protected, and applications that are hogging bandwidth, controlled.
Two standard policy options for QoS are shape or police. Policing will ensure bandwidth is never exceeded and drop the offending traffic. Shaping will delay traffic to smooth out the traffic over time. Note that as shaping limits are exceeded, it may result in dropped traffic.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main issue related to network bandwidth?
The main issue related to network bandwidth is congestion, where there is not enough bandwidth to satisfy the demands of the users and applications.
This can result in slow or unusable applications, dropped packets, retransmissions, and issues with voice and video quality.
With so many people working from home, many companies have struggled to have the necessary bandwidth in the right places to support their employees.
To detect, diagnose, and fix network bandwidth issues, it is important to monitor network utilization, packet discards and errors, and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters.
How can I detect issues with my network bandwidth?
To detect bandwidth issues, you can monitor helpdesk cases raised by users reporting problems with applications across the network.
You can also monitor the utilization of network links and raise alerts when bandwidth becomes heavily utilized, monitor packet discards and errors and monitor Quality of Service (QoS) parameters available in the network device.
For a better, and more automated approach, installing NMIS and letting devices connected to it start collecting data can also help in detecting network bandwidth issues.
What is NMIS?
NMIS (Network Management Information System) is a comprehensive network management system that assists with fault, performance, and configuration management.
It provides performance graphs and threshold alerting, as well as customizable notification policies with different types of notification methods.
NMIS monitors the status and performance of an organization’s IT environment, identifies faults and assists in their rectification, and provides valuable information for IT departments to plan expenditures and IT changes.
It features a sophisticated business rules engine, automated health live baselining, configurable alert thresholds, policy-based actions, escalations, and planned outage management.
NMIS is customizable, scalable, and has pre-configured out-of-the-box solutions, and can be used by Telco and Internet Service Providers, enterprises, and governments.
It offers community support and has predictable and transparent pricing that scales with the user’s requirements.
How can I diagnose issues with my network bandwidth?
Diagnosing network bandwidth issues requires gathering qualified information from your helpdesk and monitoring the network for issues related to congestion.
Depending on the tools available to you, you can determine the causes of the issues.
For example, packet discards will generally be caused by QoS classes dropping packets, so refining the QoS configuration to prevent the desired traffic from being discarded can solve the issue.
Using systems like Cisco IPSLA can also help monitor for changes in latency or variability in latency (Jitter).
What is QoS?
QoS stands for Quality of Service. It is a set of techniques and mechanisms that aim to ensure that network traffic is prioritized according to certain criteria in order to meet the requirements of different applications and users.
QoS mechanisms are used to manage network congestion, reduce latency, and ensure that important applications receive the necessary bandwidth and resources.
QoS can be used to prioritize different types of traffic, such as voice and video, over other types of traffic, such as file transfers and email.
This is done by assigning different levels of priority to different types of traffic and using mechanisms such as traffic shaping and prioritization to ensure that higher-priority traffic is given preferential treatment.
QoS is particularly important in real-time applications such as voice and video conferencing, where delays or dropped packets can seriously affect the quality of the service.
QoS mechanisms can help to ensure that these types of applications receive the necessary resources and are not affected by other types of traffic on the network.
Overall, QoS is an important tool for network administrators to manage and prioritize network traffic, ensuring that important applications and services receive the necessary resources and perform as expected.
What are the steps to fix issues with network bandwidth?
Actions to fix network bandwidth problems include upgrading the overall capacity at the site or implementing QoS features to manage which traffic is less important to the business and have it shaped or dropped during times of congestion.
QoS does not create more throughput but creates better “goodput,” with critical applications protected, and applications that are hogging bandwidth controlled.
Two standard policy options for QoS are shape or police, with shaping delaying traffic to smooth out the traffic over time, and policing ensuring bandwidth utilization is never exceeded and drops the offending traffic.
It’s worth noting that while QoS can help control bandwidth usage, it does not create more throughput.
However, it does create better “goodput,” with critical applications protected and non-critical applications controlled.
