[Web4lib] public network bandwidth usage

[Michael L. McEvoy]

We have seen much the same behavior. Mostly this is due to increasingly "bandwidth greedy" applications.

We jumped from a T1 to Fiber Op (5Mbps) last year. Our actual bandwidth usage is up about 35% since the Fiber install, but the amount of "it's SO SLOW" complains are well below what they used to be with the T1.

We provide 45 computers for public use (plus 35 for staff and 15 laptops for a portable classroom), plus our Public wireless usage has almost tripled to between 350 and 500 users/month. However, the wireless usage is throttle to no more than 2048/MBps total for all authenticated users combined (think of the throttle as working like cable... the less users, the more bandwidth available, the faster the access. The more users, the less bandwidth available, the slower the access). Thus, wireless usage isn't causing a great bandwidth spike, and it prevents us from being overtly desirable to P2P users.

Overall, we're handling it right now, but I expect as demand for multi-media applications increases, our demand will almost certainly outstrip bandwidth availability within the next several years.

Michael McEvoy
mmcevoy at northvillelibrary.org
Electronic Services Support
Northville District Library
http://www.northvillelibrary.org

Remember, Technical Solutions to Social issues are inherently flawed!


---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:57:17 -0500
>From: "GINTHER, Craig" <Craig.Ginther at biblioottawalibrary.ca>  
>Subject: [Web4lib] public network bandwidth usage  
>To: <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>
>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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