1.4 Wired and Wireless Networks (Factors that affect the performance of networks)

Question 1

What is Bandwidth?

Answer 1

The amount of Data that can be sent and received successfully in a given time.

NOT a measure of how fast the data travels, but how much data can be sent on the transmission media.

Measured in bits per second, often called the bit rate.

Question 2

How does the number of people affect the performance of the Network?

Answer 2

Too many users or devices on the same network can cause the network to slow down if there is insufficient bandwidth for the data.

Question 3

How does the Transmission media affect the performance of the Network?

Answer 3

Wired connections have a higher bandwidth than wireless

Fibre optic connections has a higher bandwidth than copper.

Question 4

How does the error rate affect the performance of the Network?

Answer 4

Less reliable connections increase the number of errors that occur when data is transferred.

The signal quality of wireless connections is dependent on the range of the device from the WAP and other environmental factors.

Length of cable is also a factor.

Question 5

Latency

Answer 5

Latency is the delay from transmitting data to receiving it. Latency is caused by bottlenecks in the infrastructure of the network. For examples by not using switches to appropriately segment traffic on a network

Hardware such as switches and transmission media may not operate at the same speed