Guide To Network Health - Siemens Advance Network Gateway User Manual

Guide to Network Health

Recommendations
for Network Health
54 Troubleshooting
There are no magic numbers for good, or bad, network parameters (such
as: utilization and collisions). The parameters that are acceptable for a
healthy network are determined by many variables.
1. Utilization should average less than 40%. If you have extended
peaks of greater than 70% you may want to investigate the
causes and consider configuration changes to lower the average
utilization. Generally, the greater the number of stations the
lower the acceptable utilization threshold.
2. The collision rate should be less than 5%. Be wary of large
bursts of collisions (greater than 20%); this can be an indicator of
severe cabling or component problem.
3. Bad FCS errors, late collisions, jabbers, and ghosts should be
rare occurrences and should be investigated when they become
repetitive. These error conditions are typically a result of some
kind of problem with the cabling and/or network configuration.
4. Excessive broadcast traffic adversely affects all stations on the
network. Investigate nodes that are transmitting many broad-
casts for possible reconfiguration. The average broadcast frame
rate should be less than 5%.
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