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ThroughputWikipedia

Throughput
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Ingeneralterms,throughputisthemaximumrateofproductionorthemaximumrateatwhichsomethingcan
beprocessed.
Whenusedinthecontextofcommunicationnetworks,suchasEthernetorpacketradio,throughputornetwork
throughputistherateofsuccessfulmessagedeliveryoveracommunicationchannel.Thedatathesemessages
belongtomaybedeliveredoveraphysicalorlogicallink,oritcanpassthroughacertainnetworknode.
Throughputisusuallymeasuredinbitspersecond(bit/sorbps),andsometimesindatapacketspersecond(p/s
orpps)ordatapacketspertimeslot.
Thesystemthroughputoraggregatethroughputisthesumofthedataratesthataredeliveredtoallterminals
inanetwork.[1]Throughputisessentiallysynonymoustodigitalbandwidthconsumptionitcanbeanalyzed
mathematicallybyapplyingthequeueingtheory,wheretheloadinpacketspertimeunitisdenotedasthe
arrivalrate(),andthethroughput,inpacketspertimeunit,isdenotedasthedeparturerate().
Thethroughputofacommunicationsystemmaybeaffectedbyvariousfactors,includingthelimitationsof
underlyinganalogphysicalmedium,availableprocessingpowerofthesystemcomponents,andenduser
behavior.Whenvariousprotocoloverheadsaretakenintoaccount,usefulrateofthetransferreddatacanbe
significantlylowerthanthemaximumachievablethroughputtheusefulpartisusuallyreferredtoasgoodput.

Contents
1 Maximumthroughput
1.1 Maximumtheoreticalthroughput
1.2 Asymptoticthroughput
1.3 Peakmeasuredthroughput
1.4 Maximumsustainedthroughput
2 Channelutilizationandefficiency
3 Factorsaffectingthroughput
3.1 Analoglimitations
3.2 IChardwareconsiderations
3.3 Multiuserconsiderations
4 Goodputandoverhead
5 Otherusesofthroughputfordata
5.1 IntegratedCircuits
5.2 Wirelessandcellularnetworks
5.3 Overanalogchannels
6 Seealso
7 References
8 Furtherreading

Maximumthroughput
Usersoftelecommunicationsdevices,systemsdesigners,andresearchersintocommunicationtheoryareoften
interestedinknowingtheexpectedperformanceofasystem.Fromauserperspective,thisisoftenphrasedas
either"whichdevicewillgetmydatatheremosteffectivelyformyneeds?",or"whichdevicewilldeliverthe
mostdataperunitcost?".Systemsdesignersareofteninterestedinselectingthemosteffectivearchitectureor
designconstraintsforasystem,whichdriveitsfinalperformance.Inmostcases,thebenchmarkofwhata

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systemiscapableof,orits"maximumperformance"iswhattheuserordesignerisinterestedin.When
examiningthroughput,thetermmaximumthroughputisfrequentlyusedwhereendusermaximumthroughput
testsarediscussedindetail.
Maximumthroughputisessentiallysynonymoustodigitalbandwidthcapacity.
Fourdifferentvalueshavemeaninginthecontextof"maximumthroughput",usedincomparingthe'upper
limit'conceptualperformanceofmultiplesystems.Theyare'maximumtheoreticalthroughput','maximum
achievablethroughput',and'peakmeasuredthroughput'and'maximumsustainedthroughput'.Theserepresent
differentquantitiesandcaremustbetakenthatthesamedefinitionsareusedwhencomparingdifferent
'maximumthroughput'values.Comparingthroughputvaluesisalsodependentoneachbitcarryingthesame
amountofinformation.Datacompressioncansignificantlyskewthroughputcalculations,includinggenerating
valuesgreaterthan100%.Ifthecommunicationismediatedbyseverallinksinserieswithdifferentbitrates,
themaximumthroughputoftheoveralllinkislowerthanorequaltothelowestbitrate.Thelowestvaluelink
intheseriesisreferredtoasthebottleneck.

Maximumtheoreticalthroughput
Thisnumberiscloselyrelatedtothechannelcapacityofthesystem,[2]andisthemaximumpossiblequantityof
datathatcanbetransmittedunderidealcircumstances.Insomecasesthisnumberisreportedasequaltothe
channelcapacity,thoughthiscanbedeceptive,asonlynonpacketizedsystems(asynchronous)technologies
canachievethiswithoutdatacompression.Maximumtheoreticalthroughputismoreaccuratelyreportedtotake
intoaccountformatandspecificationoverheadwithbestcaseassumptions.Thisnumber,liketheclosely
relatedterm'maximumachievablethroughput'below,isprimarilyusedasaroughcalculatedvalue,suchasfor
determiningboundsonpossibleperformanceearlyinasystemdesignphase

Asymptoticthroughput
Theasymptoticthroughput(lessformalasymptoticbandwidth)forapacketmodecommunicationnetworkis
thevalueofthemaximumthroughputfunction,whentheincomingnetworkloadapproachesinfinity,eitherdue
toamessagesizeasitapproachesinfinity,[3]orthenumberofdatasourcesisverylarge.Asotherbitratesand
databandwidths,theasymptoticthroughputismeasuredinbitspersecond(bit/s),veryseldombytespersecond
(B/s),where1B/sis8bit/s.Decimalprefixesareused,meaningthat1Mbit/sis1000000bit/s.
Asymptoticthroughputisusuallyestimatedbysendingorsimulatingaverylargemessage(sequenceofdata
packets)throughthenetwork,usingagreedysourceandnoflowcontrolmechanism(i.e.UDPratherthan
TCP),andmeasuringthenetworkpaththroughputinthedestinationnode.Trafficloadbetweenothersources
mayreducethismaximumnetworkpaththroughput.Alternatively,alargenumberofsourcesandsinksmaybe
modeled,withorwithoutflowcontrol,andtheaggregatemaximumnetworkthroughputmeasured(thesumof
trafficreachingitsdestinations).Inanetworksimulationmodelwithinfinitepacketqueues,theasymptotic
throughputoccurswhenthelatency(thepacketqueuingtime)goestoinfinity,whileifthepacketqueuesare
limited,orthenetworkisamultidropnetworkwithmanysources,andcollisionsmayoccur,thepacket
droppingrateapproaches100%.
Awellknownapplicationofasymptoticthroughputisinmodelingpointtopointcommunicationwhere
(followingHockney)messagelatencyT(N)ismodeledasafunctionofmessagelengthNasT(N)=(M+N)/A
whereAistheasymptoticbandwdithandMisthehalfpeaklength.[4]
Aswellasitsuseingeneralnetworkmodeling,asymptoticthroughputisusedinmodelingperformanceon
massivelyparallelcomputersystems,wheresystemoperationishighlydependentoncommunicationoverhead,
aswellasprocessorperformance.[5]Intheseapplications,asymptoticthroughputisusedinXuandHwang
model(moregeneralthanHockney'sapproach)whichincludesthenumberofprocessors,sothatboththe
latencyandtheasymptoticthroughputarefunctionsofthenumberofprocessors.[6]
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Peakmeasuredthroughput
Theabovevaluesaretheoreticalorcalculated.Peakmeasuredthroughputisthroughputmeasuredbyareal,
implementedsystem,orasimulatedsystem.Thevalueisthethroughputmeasuredoverashortperiodoftime
mathematically,thisisthelimittakenwithrespecttothroughputastimeapproacheszero.Thistermis
synonymouswithinstantaneousthroughput.Thisnumberisusefulforsystemsthatrelyonburstdata
transmissionhowever,forsystemswithahighdutycyclethisislesslikelytobeausefulmeasureofsystem
performance.

Maximumsustainedthroughput
Thisvalueisthethroughputaveragedorintegratedoveralongtime(sometimesconsideredinfinity).Forhigh
dutycyclenetworksthisislikelytobethemostaccurateindicatorofsystemperformance.Themaximum
throughputisdefinedastheasymptoticthroughputwhentheload(theamountofincomingdata)isverylarge.
Inpacketswitchedsystemswheretheloadandthethroughputalwaysareequal(wherepacketlossdoesnot
occur),themaximumthroughputmaybedefinedastheminimumloadinbit/sthatcausesthedeliverytime(the
latency)tobecomeunstableandincreasetowardsinfinity.Thisvaluecanalsobeuseddeceptivelyinrelationto
peakmeasuredthroughputtoconcealpacketshaping.

Channelutilizationandefficiency
Throughputissometimesnormalizedandmeasuredinpercentage,butnormalizationmaycauseconfusion
regardingwhatthepercentageisrelatedto.Channelutilization,channelefficiencyandpacketdropratein
percentagearelessambiguousterms.
Thechannelefficiency,alsoknownasbandwidthutilizationefficiency,isthepercentageofthenetbitrate(in
bit/s)ofadigitalcommunicationchannelthatgoestotheactuallyachievedthroughput.Forexample,ifthe
throughputis70Mbit/sina100Mbit/sEthernetconnection,thechannelefficiencyis70%.Inthisexample,
effective70Mbitofdataaretransmittedeverysecond.
Channelutilizationisinsteadatermrelatedtotheuseofthechanneldisregardingthethroughput.Itcountsnot
onlywiththedatabitsbutalsowiththeoverheadthatmakesuseofthechannel.Thetransmissionoverhead
consistsofpreamblesequences,frameheadersandacknowledgepackets.Thedefinitionsassumeanoiseless
channel.Otherwise,thethroughputwouldnotbeonlyassociatedtothenature(efficiency)oftheprotocolbut
alsotoretransmissionsresultantfromqualityofthechannel.Inasimplisticapproach,channelefficiencycanbe
equaltochannelutilizationassumingthatacknowledgepacketsarezerolengthandthatthecommunications
providerwillnotseeanybandwidthrelativetoretransmissionsorheaders.Therefore,certaintextsmarka
differencebetweenchannelutilizationandprotocolefficiency.
Inapointtopointorpointtomultipointcommunicationlink,whereonlyoneterminalistransmitting,the
maximumthroughputisoftenequivalenttoorverynearthephysicaldatarate(thechannelcapacity),sincethe
channelutilizationcanbealmost100%insuchanetwork,exceptforasmallinterframegap.
Forexample,themaximumframesizeinEthernetis1526bytes:upto1500bytesforthepayload,eightbytes
forthepreamble,14bytesfortheheader,andfourbytesforthetrailer.Anadditionalminimuminterframegap
correspondingto12bytesisinsertedaftereachframe.Thiscorrespondstoamaximumchannelutilizationof
1526/(1526+12)100%=99.22%,oramaximumchanneluseof99.22Mbit/sinclusiveofEthernet
datalinklayerprotocoloverheadina100Mbit/sEthernetconnection.Themaximumthroughputorchannel
efficiencyisthen1500/(1526+12)=97.5Mbit/s,exclusiveoftheEthernetprotocoloverhead.

Factorsaffectingthroughput
Thethroughputofacommunicationsystemwillbelimitedbyahugenumberoffactors.Someoftheseare
describedbelow:
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Analoglimitations
Themaximumachievablethroughput(thechannelcapacity)isaffectedbythebandwidthinhertzandsignalto
noiseratiooftheanalogphysicalmedium.
Despitetheconceptualsimplicityofdigitalinformation,allelectricalsignalstravelingoverwiresareanalog.
Theanaloglimitationsofwiresorwirelesssystemsinevitablyprovideanupperboundontheamountof
informationthatcanbesent.ThedominantequationhereistheShannonHartleytheorem,andanalog
limitationsofthistypecanbeunderstoodasfactorsthataffecteithertheanalogbandwidthofasignaloras
factorsthataffectthesignaltonoiseratio.Thebandwidthofwiredsystemscanbeinfactsurprisinglynarrow,
withthebandwidthofEthernetwirelimitedtoapproximately1GHz,andPCBtraceslimitedbyasimilar
amount.
Digitalsystemsrefertothe'kneefrequency',[7]theamountoftimeforthedigitalvoltagetorisefrom10%ofa
nominaldigital'0'toanominaldigital'1'orviceversa.Thekneefrequencyisrelatedtotherequiredbandwidth
ofachannel,andcanberelatedtothe3dbbandwidthofasystembytheequation:[8]
WhereTr
isthe10%to90%risetime,andKisaconstantofproportionalityrelatedtothepulseshape,equalto0.35for
exponentialrise,and0.338forGaussianrise.
RClosses:wireshaveaninherentresistance,andaninherentcapacitancewhenmeasuredwithrespectto
ground.Thisleadstoeffectscalledparasiticcapacitance,causingallwiresandcablestoactasRC
lowpassfilters.
Skineffect:Asfrequencyincreases,electricchargesmigratetotheedgesofwiresorcable.Thisreduces
theeffectivecrosssectionalareaavailableforcarryingcurrent,increasingresistanceandreducingthe
signaltonoiseratio.ForAWG24wire(ofthetypecommonlyfoundinCat5ecable),theskineffect
frequencybecomesdominantovertheinherentresistivityofthewireat100kHz.At1GHztheresistivity
hasincreasedto0.1ohms/inch.[9]
Terminationandringing:Forlongwires(wireslongerthan1/6wavelengthscanbeconsideredlong)
mustbemodeledastransmissionlinesandtaketerminationintoaccount.Unlessthisisdone,reflected
signalswilltravelbackandforthacrossthewire,positivelyornegativelyinterferingwiththe
informationcarryingsignal.[10]
WirelessChannelEffects:Forwirelesssystems,alloftheeffectsassociatedwithwirelesstransmission
limittheSNRandbandwidthofthereceivedsignal,andthereforethemaximumnumberofbitsthatcan
besent.

IChardwareconsiderations
Computationalsystemshavefiniteprocessingpower,andcandrivefinitecurrent.Limitedcurrentdrive
capabilitycanlimittheeffectivesignaltonoiseratioforhighcapacitancelinks.
Largedataloadsthatrequireprocessingimposedataprocessingrequirementsonhardware(suchasrouters).
Forexample,agatewayroutersupportingapopulatedclassBsubnet,handling10x100Mbit/sEthernet
channels,mustexamine16bitsofaddresstodeterminethedestinationportforeachpacket.Thistranslatesinto
81913packetspersecond(assumingmaximumdatapayloadperpacket)withatableof2^16addressesthis
requirestheroutertobeabletoperform5.368billionlookupoperationspersecond.Inaworsecasescenario,
wherethepayloadsofeachEthernetpacketarereducedto100bytes,thisnumberofoperationspersecond
jumpsto520billion.Thisrouterwouldrequireamultiteraflopprocessingcoretobeabletohandlesucha
load.
CSMA/CDandCSMA/CA"backoff"waitingtimeandframeretransmissionsafterdetectedcollisions.
ThismayoccurinEthernetbusnetworksandhubnetworks,aswellasinwirelessnetworks.
flowcontrol,forexampleintheTransmissionControlProtocol(TCP)protocol,affectsthethroughputif
thebandwidthdelayproductislargerthantheTCPwindow,i.e.thebuffersize.Inthatcasethesending
computermustwaitforacknowledgementofthedatapacketsbeforeitcansendmorepackets.
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TCPcongestionavoidancecontrolsthedatarate.Socalled"slowstart"occursinthebeginningofafile
transfer,andafterpacketdropscausedbyroutercongestionorbiterrorsinforexamplewirelesslinks.

Multiuserconsiderations
Ensuringthatmultipleuserscanharmoniouslyshareasinglecommunicationslinkrequiressomekindof
equitablesharingofthelink.IfabottleneckcommunicationlinkofferingdatarateRissharedby"N"active
users(withatleastonedatapacketinqueue),everyusertypicallyachievesathroughputofapproximatelyR/N,
iffairqueuingbesteffortcommunicationisassumed.
PacketlossduetoNetworkcongestion.Packetsmaybedroppedinswitchesandrouterswhenthepacket
queuesarefullduetocongestion.
Packetlossduetobiterrors.
Schedulingalgorithmsinroutersandswitches.Iffairqueuingisnotprovided,usersthatsendlarge
packetswillgethigherbandwidth.Someusersmaybeprioritizedinaweightedfairqueuing(WFQ)
algorithmifdifferentiatedorguaranteedqualityofservice(QoS)isprovided.
Insomecommunicationssystems,suchassatellitenetworks,onlyafinitenumberofchannelsmaybe
availabletoagivenuseratagiventime.Channelsareassignedeitherthroughpreassignmentorthrough
DemandAssignedMultipleAccess(DAMA).[11]Inthesecases,throughputisquantizedperchannel,and
unusedcapacityonpartiallyutilizedchannelsislost..

Goodputandoverhead
Themaximumthroughputisoftenanunreliablemeasurementofperceivedbandwidth,forexamplethefile
transmissiondatarateinbitsperseconds.Aspointedoutabove,theachievedthroughputisoftenlowerthanthe
maximumthroughput.Also,theprotocoloverheadaffectstheperceivedbandwidth.Thethroughputisnota
welldefinedmetricwhenitcomestohowtodealwithprotocoloverhead.Itistypicallymeasuredata
referencepointbelowthenetworklayerandabovethephysicallayer.Themostsimpledefinitionisthenumber
ofbitspersecondthatarephysicallydelivered.Atypicalexamplewherethisdefinitionispracticedisan
Ethernetnetwork.Inthiscasethemaximumthroughputisthegrossbitrateorrawbitrate.
However,inschemesthatincludeforwarderrorcorrectioncodes(channelcoding),theredundanterrorcodeis
normallyexcludedfromthethroughput.Anexampleinmodemcommunication,wherethethroughputtypically
ismeasuredintheinterfacebetweenthePointtoPointProtocol(PPP)andthecircuitswitchedmodem
connection.Inthiscasethemaximumthroughputisoftencallednetbitrateorusefulbitrate.
Todeterminetheactualdatarateofanetworkorconnection,the"goodput"measurementdefinitionmaybe
used.Forexample,infiletransmission,the"goodput"correspondstothefilesize(inbits)dividedbythefile
transmissiontime.The"goodput"istheamountofusefulinformationthatisdeliveredpersecondtothe
applicationlayerprotocol.Droppedpacketsorpacketretransmissionsaswellasprotocoloverheadare
excluded.Becauseofthat,the"goodput"islowerthanthethroughput.Technicalfactorsthataffectthe
differencearepresentedinthe"goodput"article.

Otherusesofthroughputfordata
IntegratedCircuits
Often,ablockinadataflowdiagramhasasingleinputandasingleoutput,andoperateondiscretepacketsof
information.ExamplesofsuchblocksareFFTmodulesorbinarymultipliers.Becausetheunitsofthroughput
arethereciprocaloftheunitforpropagationdelay,whichis'secondspermessage'or'secondsperoutput',
throughputcanbeusedtorelateacomputationaldeviceperformingadedicatedfunctionsuchasanASICor
embeddedprocessortoacommunicationschannel,simplifyingsystemanalysis.

Wirelessandcellularnetworks
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Inwirelessnetworksorcellularsystems,thesystemspectralefficiencyinbit/s/Hz/areaunit,bit/s/Hz/siteor
bit/s/Hz/cell,isthemaximumsystemthroughput(aggregatethroughput)dividedbytheanalogbandwidthand
somemeasureofthesystemcoveragearea.

Overanalogchannels
Throughputoveranalogchannelsisdefinedentirelybythemodulationscheme,thesignaltonoiseratio,and
theavailablebandwidth.Sincethroughputisnormallydefinedintermsofquantifieddigitaldata,theterm
'throughput'isnotnormallyusedtheterm'bandwidth'ismoreoftenusedinstead.

Seealso
BWPing
Greedysource
Highthroughputcomputing(HTC)
Iperf
Measuringnetworkthroughput
Networktrafficmeasurement
Performanceengineering
Trafficgenerationmodel
ttcp

Lookupthroughputin
Wiktionary,thefree
dictionary.

References
1.GuowangMiao,JensZander,KWSung,andBenSlimane,FundamentalsofMobileDataNetworks,Cambridge
UniversityPress,ISBN1107143217,2016.
2.Blahut,2004,p.4
3.ModelingMessagePassingOverheadbyC.YChouetal.inAdvancesinGridandPervasiveComputing:First
InternationalConference,GPC2006editedbyYehChingChungandJosE.MoreiraISBN3540338098pages299
307
4.RecentAdvancesinParallelVirtualMachineandMessagePassingInterfacebyJackDongarra,EmilioLuqueand
TomasMargalef1999ISBN3540665498page134
5.M.Reschetal.AcomparisonofMPIperformanceondifferentMPPsinRecentAdvancesinParallelVirtualMachine
andMessagePassingInterface,LectureNotesinComputerScience,1997,Volume1332/1997,2532
6.HighPerformanceComputingandNetworkingeditedbyPeterSloot,MarianBubakandBobHertzberge1998ISBN
3540644431page935
7.Johnson,1993,25
8.Johnson,1993,9
9.Johnson,1993,154
10.Johnson,1993,160170
11.Roddy,2001,370371

Furtherreading
Rappaport,TheodoreS.WirelessCommunications,PrinciplesandPracticesecondedition,PrenticeHall,
2002,ISBN0130422320
Blahut,RichardE.AlgebraicCodesforDataTransmissionCambridgeUniversityPress,2004,ISBN0
521553741
Li,Harnes,Holte,"ImpactofLossyLinksonPerformanceofMultihopWirelessNetworks",IEEE,
Proceedingsofthe14thInternationalConferenceonComputerCommunicationsandNetworks,Oct
2005,303308
Johnson,Graham,HighSpeedDigitalDesign,aHandbookofBlackMagic,PrenticeHall,1973,ISBN0
133957241
Roddy,Dennis,SatelliteCommunicationsthirdedition,McGrawHill,2001,ISBN0071371761
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