Understanding overall network performance means understanding what is working well in a network and what can be improved upon. Sometimes there are telltale signs that a network needs optimization: apps or web services loading slowly, conference calls dropping video frames or audio or data transfers failing. Other times, metric analysis is needed to identify issues that are not as obvious, but just as impactful to customer experience. 

Identifying the underlying cause of network issues can help an organization figure out how to resolve them. There are several metrics that help determine how a network is performing and identify areas that can operate more efficiently.

Maintaining a high-performance network is essential for many reasons—productivity and positive customer experiences among them—and there are several ways to optimize a network. Sometimes it’s as simple as upgrading hardware and using network optimization tools. Other times, an organization might need to completely rethink how the network is set up, how it’s used and what applications and services take priority.

More likely than not, an organization must use a combination of network optimization techniques to reach the required level of network performance. Here are a few of the most popular strategies for troubleshooting a network and improving network performance.

By using real-time monitoring software, organizations can identify and fix network bottlenecks and other issues as they are occurring. IT teams often use network performance monitoring tools to gain a deeper understanding of how a network is performing. These metrics are used to determine if a network meets the organization’s needs. It is also measured against the key performance indicators (KPI) that the organization has set for network performance to determine if the organization is upholding service level agreements (SLAs) with customers.

Armed with this data, an organization can understand, and manage, end-to-end network performance, meet client agreements and anticipate future problems. Data-driven optimization is an ongoing process that is refined and improved as the optimization model matures and the organization or network evolves.

Adjustments to network settings can facilitate optimization improvement efforts. These settings help allocate data and resources according to network priorities.  

Configuring network protocols also has an impact on network performance. Network TCP/IP settings can be adjusted to determine packet size and congestion control mechanisms that can reduce latency and increase network reliability. TCP/IP optimization also involves window resizing. The TCP protocol is designed to make sure that a fast sender of data will not overtake a receiver that is slower. To do this, the sender transmits data in one or more segments to the receiver, which acknowledges those segments. When the receiver sends that acknowledgment, it tells the sender how much data it should transmit—this is the window size. Adjusting the window to the appropriate size to prevent network devices from being overloaded can improve overall network performance.

While the transmission control protocol (TCP) is used mostly across the internet, there is also a user datagram protocol (UDP). TCP is a connection-based protocol and UDP is connectionless. Comparatively, UDP is faster than TCP, but UDP does not allow for the retransmission of lost data packets. TCP is a generally a more reliable protocol.

An organization can also consider changing its IP from IPv4 to IPv6. IPv4 uses a 32-bit address while IPv6 uses a 128-bit address. This allows for more addresses to accompany the burgeoning number of unique IP addresses needed on today’s internet.

IPv6 also comes with other improvements over IPv4. For example, IPv6 natively allows for multicasting—sending data packets to multiple devices at once—and has a built-in layer of network security by using IPsec for native end-to-end encryption.

This method of network optimization is all about increasing the maximum capacity for transferring data on a network. Greater bandwidth allows for the transmission of more data packets. This helps increase overall network speed and improve performance. Traffic shaping is a component of bandwidth optimization that implements bandwidth limiting to applications that aren’t critical to your organization.

One common method for making efficient use of bandwidth is compression. Compression reduces the size of the data packets before they’re transmitted on the network. Think of it like a .zip file. If you need to send a series of large files over email, sometimes it’s easier to compress them into a .zip file, which reduces the overall size of the data being sent.

Another method for bandwidth optimization is called caching. This is when frequently accessed data is stored on local servers or devices, rather than on the network. If you use a web browser, then you have cached files that the browser stores locally, like images from websites you visit often. One downside to caching is that if your cache of files becomes too large, it can slow down the performance of some programs.

Load balancing is the process of distributing network traffic across multiple servers to optimize the availability of applications. Servers might get millions of requests a day, creating a situation where one server is more impacted by network traffic than others. Load balancing is a technique where that traffic is parceled out across multiple different servers so that the impact is shared, rather than overloading one server.

Cybersecurity threats, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, can take down an enterprise network. Promoting a robust network security helps safeguard your network functions from unwanted interruption. There are multiple approaches to network security. Similar to network optimization, it’s likely that an organization will employ a combination of multiple methods.

Network firewalls are a security system that restricts traffic in and out of a network. This helps guard against bad actors. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) monitor network traffic for suspicious activity, and alert security teams to known or potential threats. Encryption can be used to protect sensitive data, particularly in areas of a network most likely to be targeted. Used together, such tools can help secure a network and optimize availability. 

Content delivery networks (CDNs) and subnetting are methods used to decrease the distance that data packets must travel and reduce latency.

CDNs use a network of distributed servers in multiple different locations, closer to the users. Instead of having to access servers that are distant from them, users can access the data on a distributed server that’s much closer to their location. Similarly, subnetting creates a smaller network of frequently accessed endpoints that communicate with each other. By grouping these endpoints together, the travel distance for most data packets on a network can be limited.

Network infrastructure, like the physical components used to build the network, plays a large role in network performance. It is important to make sure that network devices and equipment, like routers, switches and cables are updated and in good working order. It is also important that enterprise IT teams perform regular maintenance checks, install patches on networking devices and update or upgrade outdated network hardware and software.