Let’s start using a metaphor or say analogy to understand the concept. Let us assume two sorts of pipes, one wider and the other narrow. Imagine that water is flowing from both the pipes. Which will flow faster? It’s obvious that the water in wider pipe since the wider can offer much speed than the other.

So, applying the concept to networking, the maximum speed that can be offered or provided by the network is it’s bandwidth. And the rate at which the data is actually transmitted is our Internet’s or Network speed! That is the common misconception for the bandwidth and Speed of the network. This misconception may be from the advertisements from the ISP, showing the speed of the network which is actually the bandwidth. Let’s dive little deeper to the details of Bandwidth.

What is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth describes the maximum data transfer rate of a network or Internet connection. It measures how much data can be sent over a specific connection in a given amount of time, ex. Mbps. This speed varies with respect to the physical equipment used and the ISP (Internet Service Provider). The data often flow through several connections to reach destination, in which sometimes the network causes a bottleneck due to smaller bandwidth. This issue may not be between the servers and the Internet carriers but can be between us and the ISP.

Types of Bandwidth

Public Wireless: There are some areas where the operators might not be able to reach with cables to provide network. In these cases, Long Term Evolution (LTE), commonly 4G is being established. They are sold proportionally the prices to the bandwidth. These are mostly referred to as WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) as well. Learn More!

Broadband: It’s the short form of broad bandwidth.  Broadband Internet is almost always much faster than even the fastest dial-up connections and refers to connections that are always on. This means that they’re long lasting connections that don’t need to be established with each use. It is most extensively used because of its high speed and low cost. Read More!

Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN): It is the advanced technology in making the speed of the Internet more faster. This actually has the combined bandwidth from multiple connections. This solves the issue of complex networks, unpredictable speeds, etc. Read More!

Dynamic bandwidth allocation: It is also referred to as burstable bandwidth. It is the on demand bandwidth type that allows users to increase or decrease the bandwidth according to the requirements. More!

Neologism:

• Bottleneck: The delay or the halt in the transmission of data.
• WiFi: It is a wireless networking device that transmits data in the form of radio signals.
• Dial up Connections: It is the earlier form of transferring data where in every time we have to dial specific number for the connectivity to transfer data. This connection ends once we hang up.

Note: The units may differ when we there is a change in context.

Stay safe and Spread Knowledge!