Network Speed Calculator
Estimate expected throughput from network specifications and real-world conditions
Input Parameters
Local (95%), LAN (80-90%), Internet (60-75%), VPN (50-70%)
Results
Calculating...
How it works
Estimate realistic transfer speeds based on network bandwidth, accounting for real-world factors like latency, tool overhead, and parallelism benefits.
Formula
Simple Mode:
Expected Speed = (Bandwidth × Efficiency %)
Advanced Mode:
Expected Speed = Bandwidth × (Base Efficiency × Transport × Encapsulation × Tool x Storage x Files + Parallelism Boost)
Usage
- Simple Mode: Quick estimate using a single efficiency percentage
- Advanced Mode: Detailed analysis with separate factors for latency, transport, encapsulation, tool, storage, files, and parallelism
When to use this calculator
- Estimate achievable transfer speeds for a data migration
- Compare different bandwidth options or network configurations
- Understand how latency and parallelism affect performance
- Evaluate different transfer tools and connection types
How Advanced Mode works
The calculator uses an empirical model based on real-world observations:
- Base efficiency - Determined by bandwidth and latency combination. Higher bandwidth with higher latency = lower base efficiency (due to TCP/BDP limitations)
- Transport overhead - Network path overhead (LAN, WAN, Internet routing, etc.)
- Encapsulation overhead - Security/tunnel layer overhead (VPN, SSH tunnel, etc.)
- Tool overhead - Software overhead from the transfer tool (rsync, scp, rclone, etc.)
- Storage path - Additional overhead if writing through NFS, SMB, or other mounted filesystems
- File characteristics - Per-file overhead for small files vs. large files
- Parallelism - Multiple connections can recover lost efficiency, especially on high-latency links
Note: Overall efficiency is capped at 95% to reflect physical and practical limits that prevent achieving 100% bandwidth utilization.