[Web4lib] public network bandwidth usage

[GINTHER, Craig]

Hello all,

We've recently seen a huge increase in bandwidth usage on our public network, and are trying to determine whether this is similar to what other large public libraries are experiencing.  Public PCs (approx 400 in total) in all of our branches share a 100Mbps pipe, but we only pay for a 10 meg service with bursting capabilities as required (for a cost).  

As of March 2006, we were averaging 1.5 Megs usage, with spikes to 4 Megs, but we're now looking at traffic during business hours regularly hits 30 Mbps inbound and peaks past 40 Mbps.  Not surprisingly, the most common destination appears to be various Akamai.net sites, with video and image intensive sites such as Facebook and YouTube also appearing as heavy users. Most of the traffic is HTTP (TCP 80), followed at a distance by HTTPS (TCP 443) with a small amount of instant messaging an other protocols.

Are others seeing similar increases?  If so, how many public PCs do you have (for the sake of comparison)?


Craig Ginther
Acting Manager, Virtual Library Services
Ottawa Public Library/Bibliothèque publique d'Ottawa
101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K2G 5K7
Phone: 613-580-2424 x41588
Craig.Ginther at BiblioOttawaLibrary.ca
http://www.BiblioOttawaLibrary.ca





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