8.1.2 Throughput Units

8.1.2 Throughput Units Throughputmeasures how much of something passes through something else in a certain amount of time. The term isn't limited to just computing. It can also mean things like the number of pages you can read per hour, the number of patients a doctor sees in a day, or the number of customers visiting a store in a week. All these examples are different ways of describing throughput. It measures how fast things move or get done.With computers, this means how much data moves through the system in one second. With networking, it's similar but slightly different—it’s about how much data moves from one place to another in one second. You can also think of it as the amount of data passing through the network at any given moment.It's important to know that throughput is not the highest or lowest amount. Throughput is the total amount over a certain block of time. Think of it like a bus: if the network were a bus, throughput would be like counting all the passengers the bus carried in one day.In fact, one of the main jobs when managing a network is to monitor throughput so you can make changes if necessary. A slow network can make everyone unhappy and less productive. Moving Bits When we talk about how much a storage drive or memory can hold, we use bytes to measure that capacity. But when we talk about how fast data moves, we use bits, which are much smaller than bytes. In fact, one byte is equal to eight bits. Network transfers break it down to the smallest units possible, bits per second. But when you check your Internet speed, the results are shown as Mbps, which means megabits per second. If you want to send a video to a friend over the Internet, the speed is measured in megabits (Mb) or gigabits (Gb) per second. Bandwidth When talking about sendingdata over the Internet, we often use the term bandwidth. Bandwidthis the highest amount of data that a network can handleat once. For example, if a network has a bandwidth of 50 megbitas per second (Mbps), it can't send data faster than that number.Going back to our bus analogy, think of it like this: bandwidth is the maximum number of passengers the bus can carry at one time. Bandwidth describes the bus's seating capacity, and throughput describes how many people the bus actually transported in a certain amount of time, carrying passengers over many trips throughout the day. Throughput Units To restate the throughput measurements, when we move data between parts within a computer or between different computers on a network, we measure how fast this happens in bits per second (bps). Just like with storage, using bits per second can make for really long numbers, so we use larger units to make it easier to understand. Here are some of those units: Kilobits per second (Kbps) One thousand (1,000) bits per second Megabits per second (Mbps) One million (1,000,000) bits per second Gigabits per second (Gbps) One billion (1,000,000,000) bits per second Terabits per second (Tbps) One trillion (1,000,000,000,000) bits per second Throughput Obstacles Directions: Read each question carefully. For each question, choose the best answer from the options provided and circle or mark your choice. Which of the following factors can cause a slowdown in network throughput? Increased bandwidth Latency Faster network cables Higher ISP package How does congestion affect a network? It increases the bandwidth of the network. It speeds up the network. It makes data transfer slower. It has no effect on the network. What is the term used when the network speed is limited by its slowest component? Bandwidth bottleneck Weak link Latency Protocol delay What does an ISP typically provide to its customers? Unlimited data transfers Guaranteed maximum speed Free hardware upgrades Advertised download speeds, which may differ from actual speeds If a network experiences frequent data packet loss, what is likely to happen? Congestion increases and slows down the network. The network speed increases. The network becomes more efficient. Data transfer remains unaffected.