Design smarter links using realistic traffic and usage. Compare bitrate and volume scenarios in minutes. Get clear bandwidth targets and plan upgrades without guesswork.
Choose a mode, enter traffic assumptions, and calculate required bandwidth. Results include peak factor, protocol overhead, and efficiency.
The calculator estimates average traffic first, then scales it to a safe requirement:
Use efficiency to reflect real throughput, and overhead to cover headers and control traffic.
Start by estimating the sustained average load. For interactive services, multiply concurrent users by a realistic per user bitrate based on codec settings and application telemetry. For batch transfers, convert total gigabytes into megabits, then divide by the usable seconds in the delivery window. This baseline keeps plans grounded in measurable demand rather than optimistic link rates. Include expected growth, like new sites or features, and revise the baseline quarterly using the same measurement method.
Networks rarely operate at a flat line. Bursts from video keyframes, retransmissions, cache misses, or synchronized application activity can push utilization above the mean for seconds or minutes. Apply a peak factor that matches your risk tolerance, the number of simultaneous sessions, and the variance seen in monitoring. Values like 1.2 to 1.5 often reflect moderate bursts, while higher factors fit unpredictable traffic mixes.
Protocol headers, encryption, tunneling, and control traffic consume capacity that users never see. Add an overhead percentage to represent this hidden share across the whole path, including encapsulation between sites or clouds. If you rely on VPN overlays, frequent small packets, or chatty protocols, overhead rises. When in doubt, select a conservative overhead and validate it using interface counters, flow records, or packet captures.
Efficiency converts line rate into expected throughput. It captures contention, shaping, QoS policies, wireless conditions, and provider performance under load. An efficiency of 85 to 95 percent is common for well managed links, but shared access or noisy neighbors can lower it. Setting efficiency correctly prevents under sizing that later appears as latency, jitter, and packet loss during busy periods.
The required bandwidth result combines baseline, peaks, overhead, and efficiency into a single target. Use the recommended rounded link speed to map the target to common port options and service tiers, then check whether redundancy or failover doubles the effective demand. Recheck assumptions after pilot measurements, and document the inputs so stakeholders understand why capacity was chosen, what margin exists, and when upgrades should be triggered. If the next standard tier is expensive, compare to traffic shaping, compression, or scheduling transfers outside peak hours.
Bitrate mode sizes steady, real time sessions using concurrent users and per user throughput. Volume mode sizes scheduled transfers by spreading total data across the usable time window.
Use monitoring to compare short term peaks to the average. If you lack data, start around 1.3 for mixed traffic and adjust after a pilot measurement.
Start with 10 to 20 percent for typical Ethernet and IP stacks. Increase it for VPN tunnels, small packets, or heavy control traffic, then validate with interface counters.
Line rate is rarely delivered as usable throughput. Contention, shaping, errors, and provider limits reduce real transfer capacity, so efficiency translates the advertised rate into expected performance.
Compute in Mbps for clarity, then convert to Gbps for procurement and port planning. Choose the next common tier above the required value to keep headroom.
Yes. Run the calculator for normal conditions, then re run it assuming one link carries the combined load during failover, and compare the recommended tiers.
| Scenario | Mode | Overhead | Efficiency | Approx. Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 users @ 2 Mbps, peak 1.3 | Bitrate | 15% | 90% | ≈ 166.67 Mbps |
| 250 GB in 24h, utilization 70% | Volume | 20% | 85% | ≈ 113.44 Mbps |
| 120 users @ 1.5 Mbps, peak 1.5 | Bitrate | 10% | 92% | ≈ 322.83 Mbps |
Examples are illustrative; your network conditions may vary.
Important Note: All the Calculators listed in this site are for educational purpose only and we do not guarentee the accuracy of results. Please do consult with other sources as well.