Bandwidth

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Bandwidth

Bandwidth deals with how information passes through electronic systems. Since today's business world relies heavily on online communication, Internet research, and intranet resources, bandwidth is a primary concern in emerging technologies. When technicians speak of gaining or needing bandwidth, they are referring to the ability to transmit more information through the online connections. Many measurements involving bandwidth are also important to companies, such as how much data is transmitted in a continuous flow and how much data can be transmitted over a particular time.

FACTORS AFFECTING BANDWIDTH

Bandwidth can be used in a very broad definition; in this manner, it often refers to any need for more time, information, and space. In a connotative sense, bandwidth can mean the number of employees in a given department or the time constraints on a particular project. The narrow meaning of the word bandwidth is the electrical capacity, either analog or digital. In analog channels the rate is defined in hertz, the difference between higher and lower frequencies. In digital channels, the rate is defined by bits per second.

Company bandwidth, no matter how it is received, can be limited by several different factors, most notably the relationship between what online applications the company is using and the services and technology cable and DSL (digital subscriber line) providers offer. There are several important terms used in describing bandwidth space and a company's use of it:

Bottleneck link bandwidth. This is the maximum rate data can travel in a given online system, from the source to the end receiver. This definition assumes that the data is traveling on the slowest possible path between its destinations.
Surplus available bandwidth. This is the amount of bandwidth left over after the company has used all of its available bandwidth in the bottleneck link scenario. Businesses often deal with this concept since they have multiple applications and have usually purchased a large amount of bandwidth from their provider.
Fair-share available bandwidth. A company rarely reaches and surpasses this level of use, unless it is pursuing aggressive or inappropriate bandwidth usage that drowns out other users and creates a state of congestion along the provider's line. Fair-share bandwidth is the maximum amount any business should plan on using, an amount that neither interferes with online communication traffic nor consumes too much space for company usage.
Protocol-dependent available bandwidth. Based on what applications it is using, this is the amount of bandwidth a company should expect to take. This number may be produced by an agreement with the server or as a natural result of business expectations. The protocol-dependent bandwidth is how much bandwidth the company needs to run, and it lies somewhere between surplus bandwidth and fair-share bandwidth.

GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT BANDWIDTH USAGE

Despite the increasing availability of high-speed Internet connections and new ways of transferring data, bandwidth consumption remains a concern for many Internet providers, and businesses should be careful when purchasing and using their bandwidth so that they are not subject to penalties or sudden price adjustments. Consumption should be carefully monitored; this can be done with a simple program that can be bought or downloaded for free from certain Web sites. Bandwidth use should also be plotted over time so that companies can see if there are any sudden changes and where those changes may have come from. It is possible that employees, attracted by the high-speed connection offered by their company, will use company bandwidth for personal downloads, which can use a large amount of available space. There are bandwidth-management systems that can be put into place to automatically regulate Internet usage and help undo such problems.

Some business analysts have concerns, which are summed up by Tim Wu in a 2008 article, “OPEC 2.0.” In this piece, Wu theorizes that bandwidth may become another scarce, necessary commodity, in the same way that oil is today. Wu points to the control of bandwidth in the hands of only a few companies, and the growing need for bandwidth to run information-driven societies, as signs of this trend. However, current bandwidth rates are neither high enough or consequential enough to prove this theory, and although most businesses depend on online interaction of some type, restrictions regarding the flow of information have not yet hampered overall productivity.