Everybody streams now
A college moves its lessons to live video. Overnight, the Wi-Fi and the old switches carry ten times more traffic.
Calls freeze. Students complain. The IT team could buy new kit at once. But a good technician asks two questions first: what exactly has changed, and which parts are now too weak?
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Change | anything new that affects how the network is used, such as a new service or more users |
| Trigger | the event that starts a change, such as a new law or an end of support date |
| Contemporary hardware | modern kit that is current and supported |
| Legacy hardware | older kit that still works but may be slow, unsupported or limited |
| Baseline | measurements taken now, to compare with later |
| Throughput | how much data really moves each second |
| Usage | how much of a part's capacity is in use |
| Latency | the delay before data arrives |
| Router | a device that passes data between networks |
| Packet loss | packets that never arrive |
| Network | computers and devices joined so they can share data |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can identify a change, work out which hardware it affects, and assess current network performance so that I have a baseline.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Step 1: identify the change
A change has a trigger. Common triggers are more users, a new service such as video, a new law and an end-of-support date. A repeat fault or a security warning can be one too.
Name the change in one clear sentence. "Lessons now run as live video for 600 students."
Step 2: find the hardware affected
List what the change touches. Follow the path of the traffic: the end user devices, the access points, the switches, the links, the router and the internet line.
Check each against the new need. Include both contemporary hardware and legacy hardware. A single 100 Mbps switch in the path can slow everything behind it.
Hardware checked for the video change
| Device | Type | Speed | Enough for video? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access point A | Contemporary | 600 Mbps | Yes |
| Access point B | Legacy | 54 Mbps | No |
| Switch in room 4 | Legacy | 100 Mbps | No |
| Core switch | Contemporary | 1000 Mbps | Yes |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
Have a go
Check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.