Bandwidth Shared or Dedicated?
Are the linodes, dedicate cpu for example, the 40/4+ is this share with other linode on the server or dedicated to my instance?
1 Reply
eruzanski
Linode Staff
The advertised network speeds of 40/4 Gbps associated with your Linodes are reflective of the absolute upper limits achievable for your specific compute instances at any given time.
These figures define the maximum defined bandwidth that's available at your disposal. It's important to differentiate bandwidth from throughput whereas bandwidth is the theoretical limit of the defined network capacity, while throughput is your true network transfer speeds as the packets navigate the internal and external infrastructure.
It's important to note that once packets embark on a journey beyond the data center's boundaries, they inevitably traverse the vast expanse of the public internet. Along this route, they encounter a complex web of carriers, providers, and varying network conditions, each capable of exerting an influence on both speed and latency. Importantly, the performance of your network connection beyond the data center is dictated by external factors that fall beyond the purview of control for both the data center and Linode.
To demonstrate throughout here, I conducted an internal data center iperf3 test between two 4GB Premium CPU instances, originating from our newly provisioned Seattle region. Here are the results:
[SUM] 58.00-59.00 sec 474 MBytes 3.98 Gbits/sec
[SUM] 59.00-60.00 sec 475 MBytes 3.97 Gbits/sec
As evident from these results, the Premium 4GB instances successfully attained the advertised 4Gbps throughput while operating within the data center's controlled environment. However, once I initiated a fresh iperf3 test from a source originating outside of Akamai's backbone (my local laptop), and the values decreased to match the maximum allowed by the sender's Internet Service Provider (ISP):
[SUM] 60.00-60.06 sec 123 KBytes 16.8 Mbits/sec
[SUM] 0.00-60.06 sec 84.9 MBytes 11.9 Mbits/sec
In this specific instance, my local ISP only permitted an upload speed of 12 Mbits/sec. Despite the 40Gbps inbound capacity of my Linode, the actual throughput was limited by the capabilities of the sender's ISP.
In summary, the key takeaway here is that the stated maximum throughput values are indeed attainable within the Linode network, yet external limitations, such as those imposed by ISPs, may result in lower speeds in certain scenarios.