Network Reliability; Network Bandwidth; Network Latency - HP Bc1500 - BladeSystem - Blade PC Supplementary Manual

Network reliability

Businesses require reliable networks, which are imperative to support solutions that successfully address
business needs. In CCI, network failure affects user access to virtualized desktops. Therefore, HP recom-
mends that you use redundant design practices to provide multiple network paths to all centralized com-
puting resources. Carefully set expectations of how minor to catastrophic network outages will affect the
end user environment. Consider customer business rules and job functions when establishing these expec-
tations.

Network bandwidth

The term "bandwidth" in network design refers to the transfer data rate supported by a network connec-
tion or interface and is commonly expressed in terms of bits per second (bps). The term comes from the
field of electrical engineering, where bandwidth represents the total distance between the highest peak
and lowest valley of a communication signal (band). Network bandwidth is one of the only factors that
determines the perceived speed of a network.

Network latency

Network latency describes the time (in milliseconds) that it takes a packet to traverse a network. An easy
way to measure network latency is with the MS DOS "PING" command. This command tests any network
device that has a valid IP address. A successful ping yields a message displaying response time. Because
CCI end users access their blade PC sessions across some distance, maintaining low network latency has
a direct affect on user experience. A few factors that can increase network latency that you should con-
sider when evaluating a CCI network include:
•
poor quality connections
•
network congestion
•
network saturation
Consider conducting a network traffic study to determine the level of saturation a connection may encoun-
ter, and take steps (well documented outside the scope of this paper) to alleviate the underlying condi-
tions.
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