There are a number of factors that affect the performance of a network.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is how much data is transferred over time. It is often represented by Megabits per second (Mb/s or Mbps) – not Megabytes (MBs), that is the measure of file size. Attenuation is one-way bandwidth can be affected, such as a network device connected by twisted-pair is over 100 meters from a switch the Mbps will be slower than if it is closer.
Network design
There are many issues when it comes to network design, we are just going to cover a few here:
- Topology – if a star topology has not been used it can introduce congestion or loss of connection to multiple devices.
- Transmission media – if the incorrect transmission has been selected for a use case it can create slow points in a network.
- Number of devices – if a high number of devices are using the underpowered network equipment, such as hundreds of wireless devices using the same wireless access point, the hardware can be overwhelmed with traffic it cannot handle.
Data collisions
While CSMA/CA avoids collisions, if too many devices are using a wireless network the amount of avoided collisions can create a slow network even though the collisions are not actually occurring.
Excess broadcast traffic
Broadcast refers to network data sent to all nodes of a network. This is less of a problem since switches became standard over hubs. The opportunity for devices to broadcast over a whole network has been greatly reduced. It often occurs when a device first connects to a network and must connect to the DHCP server.