Network
Network requirements ultimately depend on what is to be streamed and by how many
simultaneous users. A single user streaming a Full HD video will work on
a 100Mbps wired or Wireless N 150Mbps
connection … just, any other traffic on the same network and buffering starts
rearing its ugly head.
It's recommended that for the best experience invest in a 1Gbps network on the
server and on the hub. This way the server can handle theoretically 10 full HD
streams on the server backbone without interruption, after the hub and assuming
they are a wired connection the video feeds branch out to their own channel,
therefore 100 Mbps will suffice. That leaves wireless as the only source for a
bottleneck, and sadly the technology readily available is limited to 300Mbps
Wireless N MIMO, but still this should be enough for two possibly three HD
streams depending on encryption overheads.
To better understand what can be achieved on a network this chart shows compares
speeds achieveable with various home network options, with typical media streams
to help calculate a networks capacity when streaming:
Wired
|
Standard
|
Name
|
Speed
|
Throughput
|
|
10 Base T
|
Ethernet
|
10 Mbps
|
7Mbps
|
|
100 Base T
|
Fast Ethernet
|
100Mbps
|
70Mbps
|
|
1000 Base T
|
Gigabit Ethernet
|
1000Mbps
|
700Mbps
|
Wired Ethernet networks have the ability to operate close their advertised
speeds, however factors such as other traffic on the network, quality of the
cables used and packet headers reduce the throughput available. Ethernet is full
duplex and so can still cope well with a lot of machines connected at the same
time.
Wireless
|
Standard
|
Speed
|
Throughput
|
|
802.11b
|
11Mbps
|
3Mbps
|
|
802.11g
|
54Mbps
|
20Mbps
|
|
802.11
|
150Mbps
|
60Mbps
|
|
802.11n Dual Channel
|
300Mbps
|
100Mbps
|
|
802.11n Multi Channel
|
600Mbps
|
180Mbps
|
|
802.11ac
|
1300Mbps
|
400Mbps
|
Wireless speeds are trickier to judge as there are a lot of factors that
determines the connection, the amount of devices connected, distance and signal
quality, encryption used and even the quality of the access point can affect the
performance. Also unlike Ethernet, wireless is a half duplex connection, meaning
an access point can only send or receive at one time, so as the demand on the
access point increases the speed of transfers can decrease.
Video Streams
|
Media Type |
Resolution |
Bitrate |
|
Mp4
|
1920 x 1080p
|
4.5 Mbps
|
|
Mp4
|
1280 x 720p
|
2.5Mbps
|
|
Mp4
|
854 x 480p
|
1.0Mbps
|
|
Mpeg
|
1920 x 1080i
|
25.0Mbps
|
|
Mpeg
|
1280 x 720p
|
19.0Mbps
|
|
Mpeg
|
854 x 480p
|
3.5Mbps
|
|
Mp3
|
Audio
|
0.2Mbps
|
Typical bitrates here can be used as a very rough guide as actual rates can vary
greatly depending on the quality and type of content, for example a fast flowing
high quality video will have a higher bitrate than slow moving footage.
