Page 9 - EngineerIT June July 2025

CONNECTIVITY

Speed tests not an accurate It is all about ensuring that each user/device has a reasonable experience.
picture Here, the limitations of the internet protocol or devices no longer apply,
Now, back to the speed tests: firstly, because it’s not one device trying to download a file at 1Gbps, but multiple
in order to be accurate, the speed devices that are accessing cloud-based services, downloading, streaming
test must be done in a manner that video and gaming online at the same time, and making full use of the
removes all other variables and this bandwidth available.
means using a wired connection
directly from a laptop to the router. More to connectivity than just speed
Users also have to make sure that What we are starting to see is that a speed test is no longer an accurate
the device being used for the test is reflection of what you can do with a high-speed internet connection – to run
capable – if a laptop has a 100Mbps a test properly for the modern use case would require you to fire up multiple
network port, that is the maximum connections concurrently and test the total capacity of the connection.
you are going to get. Even the quality
of the LAN cable, being a CAT 4, 5, 5e, Most of us grew up in an age where there were severe limitations on local
6 may influence your performance networks and this was the main bottleneck; with such low speeds to start off
test. Ie a CAT 4 cable can only handle with, every bump up had a noticeable difference such as significantly faster
16Mbps, a CAT 5 only 100Mbps and download speeds. It also meant that speed tests had more relevance back
CAT5e would handle up to 1Gbps. then. However, as technology has evolved this is no longer the case and
doubling your line speed is not going to result in being able to download a file
Servers, switches, routers, cables, in half the time that it used to before.
firewalls and access points can all
have a negative impact on speed. On fibre services the line speed is the maximum throughput download capacity
As an example, when fibre network of the line. On wireless connectivity one has a practical achievable speed
operators were rolling out free speed based on network load and a theoretical speed that will never be achieved in
upgrades over the past few years, practice. We briefly mentioned theoretical and real world speeds in relation
customers found they were unable to wireless services, but as we start seeing higher speeds on fibre lines, it is
to benefit because their routers were likely that we are also reaching the theoretical speed through that medium as
incapable of handling over 100Mbps. communication as well. For example, how can you properly test a 10Gbps line
Many were unaware of this and when the devices themselves are not capable of handling such speeds due to
instead thought the problem lay with limitations in processing power, memory and other components?
the fibre network operator or their ISP.
The reality is that we are reaching a stage of bandwidth abundance, where
The second challenge is that high service providers can provide users more bandwidth that what they would
speed connections, such as a gigabit actually require. At this stage, speed is no longer everything, and what is
link, were not designed to deliver important is to have the capacity in order to ensure a quality experience across
1Gbps to a single user on a single all users and devices.
device (as would be seen on a speed
test), but rather to connect multiple
users, devices and applications
concurrently to the same network.
Having a gigabit connection is not
going to ensure that a single user
has perfect video calls all of the time;
rather it means that you can have
multiple users, all taking part in video
calls at the same time each having
an optimal experience.

The combined required throughput
of a link can be determined by the
simultaneous use per user or device.
As example, should 30 concurrent
users/devices require an effective
throughput of 10Mbps each, one
would then need a 300Mbps service.

9 | EngineerIT June/July 2025