Router sustainable bandwidth

N

Nanobyte

New Member
There have been a few forum posts where router problems are occurring at high data rates, possibly overheating the router/modem. Manufacturers only specify the maximum rates. They don't say if they are sustainable over a period of time. I searched the various standards in the advertising blurb and router specs and I could find no specification that covered bandwidth claims. They refer only to communication requirements.

To me, it's like having a car that is advertised as doing 200kph, but only does it to the end of the drive before the engine drops out.

Does anyone know if the industry has some sort of standard for the duty cycle?
 
Vipernitrox said:
Not really, but the biggest source for information on routers and stuff is http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/.
Click to expand...
Even looking at some of that site, there is very little about sustained operation. For me it's not important as my bandwidth is too low but many forum network issues are from gamers and networked dorm gnomes who run at high rates.

I have no idea whether they are supposed to be able to maintain the maximum over the quoted operating temperature range. With most electrical equipment you get a maximum rating and maximum continuous rating. Not with modems/routers apparently. In fact in one of the articles at SmallNetBuilder, it said that manufacturers are steering away from quoting rates due to lawsuits and going with Good, Better, Best. If they include duty cycle, perhaps it would have to be Maybe Sometimes Good, More Likely Better, Almost Certainly Best. I suppose you have to rely on word-of-mouth.
 
Ah, so you mean more like at which temperature can router X sustain bandwith Y for a time period of several days?

Most of the problems don't really occur from hardware failure (like overheating). They are mostly software related. Router not being able to handle the amount of connections a gamer is throwing at them is a software issue.

I think you're best bet is to just get a router that is able to process a lot more bandwidth then you'll need. Installing custom firmware like dd-wrt also goes a long way as to fixing this kind of problems
 
I don't have a problem other than trying to resolve other people's problems. It should not matter what is being thrown at a router, it should deliver the advertised bandwidth for some specified period regardless of whether it's a hardware or firmware issue (indefinitely if it were advertised as max continuous rating). If a lot of bandwidth is used in the connections overhead, that is fair enough and should be included in the traffic throughput, but the router should keep running at the advertised bandwidth. If there are any connection limits, that should be prominently advertised so the company will go out of business.
 
Sorry, having a hard time understanding where you want to go with this. But you want the companies to advertise what they can deliver? You can't just ask every company to advertise exactly what they support and what it can deliver.

Under "normal" (surfing and some simple downloading) conditions a router performs fine. If you want any specific/advanced features. Like good port forwarding, granular control over your firewall and/or qos. You'll have to read in depth reviews and know your stuff. Just like with any other product.

You can't just expect to be able to throw anything at a router and expect it to perform it the same way as it does under normal strain/use.

I admit, there are a lot of problems concerning routers/modems and other network equipment. But that's related to users expecting to plug it in and thinking it'll work fine. It's simply not that easy, you'll need someone who knows about this stuff.
 
Going back to my first post, the performance of a router should be quoted as maximum (the absolute max) and maximum continuous (no matter what you throw at it).

When you run your PC, you expect the CPU to be capable of running at 100% with the standard heatsink and fan. If that is not the case then the same spec should apply, eg max CPU continuous rating 80% of maximum.

The auto industry has managed to put the same sort of data in place with their city and highway ratings. They have a specified test for each. It may not be perfect but it is better than someone quoting 70mpg, not mentioning the car was descending from Katmandu with a following wind.
 
My experience with routers is the more traffic they deal with the faster they burn out. I don't know if that answers your question. I have seen a newer cable modem with a router connected to it generate 100MB of data constantly for almost a day straight and nothing fancy happened. An average user shouldn't be worried about the "quoted maximum" usage they can get out of it. Unless you are a business or an ISP this is the last thing you are worrying about. Like Vipernitrox said the software/firmware is your biggest problem.
 
@ nanobyte:
True, it would be nice if they could throw together a testing standard like that.

The problem with this is that there still is a user problem. People don't know what to do with routers. And they don't know what they can handle. If you take the auto industry, people know what kind of stuff you put in the tank. People also know that if you drive your car over spikes that your tires flat out.What people don't know is that if you use torrents to download stuff your overloading your router with hundreds of connections.

Basically the problem is that people generally know what is and what isn't possible with most products. With routers, they simply don't know. So it's hard to define a testing standard if people simply wreck the stuff...
 
With more services (movies, TV, files) migrating to the Internet it's going to become more important that the average user knows what they are getting. They need something pre-digested. Perhaps by making the capabilities clearer so that the right choice is made in the first place, there will be less wreckage.

Perhaps only 3 ratings would be needed
Maximum (for the average user needing high speed in short bursts)
Maximum continuous (for high bandwidth such as HDTV + Internet)
Multi-connection (torrents, servers)

With any rating system, the manufacturers will try to find ways to improve their numbers, sometimes to the detriment of performance outside the spec.
 
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