Planning the Internet for your project - what you should bear in mind

To keep your project reliably online, here we show you the main Internet connection types and their peculiarities.

The "always-on" principle has fundamentally changed the way we work since the 2000s. It means that a permanent internet connection for applications is taken for granted. Today, the principle applies more than ever. It is therefore particularly important to plan project and event Internet carefully. In this article you will find an overview of the most important connection types. We will of course be happy to plan the Internet and WiFi connection for your projects in full.

 

Back then, an email program like Outlook was installed. Today, we go to a website to check our email. It's the same with countless other applications. And even installed programs or apps need constant Internet access. Be it for synchronization, for updates or for connecting with other users. Everything happens conveniently in the background - as long as the Internet connection is active. And here is the "bottleneck".

 

With electricity, we know that 230 V comes out of the socket - plug it in and the appliance comes on. It's quite different with the Internet. If internet is required for an event, a project or a livestream, simply having an internet connection is not enough. Because that can mean that there is "WiFi with 2 Mbit/s download" or "fiber optic with 1000 Mbit/s download". And what about the upload?

 

Asynchronous lines: Upload is often slower

Most Internet connections are asynchronous. This means that downloading data is faster than uploading it. Since most people download more data than they upload, this meets the needs of most users and saves providers money. So, for example, if you get a statement that there is 50 Mbps Internet at a location, that only says something about how fast they can download. The speed for uploading is likely to be something like 10 Mbps - much less. Especially if you are planning event internet, the upload capacity should be taken into account.

 

Latency: Less is more

Latency describes the time it takes for a single data request to be answered by the remote station. For data downloads or surfing the Internet, this is of secondary importance. For real-time applications, such as telephony, video meetings or live streams, latency is of crucial importance. After all, a movement in the image or a spoken sound must always be reproduced immediately on the other end. Otherwise, delays are perceived as disruptions or "jerks". What does latency mean at WiFi and latency on the Internet? The answer is simple: the lower the latency, the better the real-time communication.

 

Latency measurement on the Internet

To determine the latency on the Internet, a latency measurement is often carried out via a speed test. This measures the latency time (the so-called ping value) that a data packet needs to travel from one point to another and back. A low ping is particularly important for applications that require real-time communication (e.g. streams or telephone calls).

 

Fiber optics has the lowest latency

Fiber optic connections generally offer high data throughput and very low latency, making them ideal for real-time applications. Fiber optic latency is usually significantly lower than conventional copper lines or other technologies. Therefore, fiber is often preferred for projects where a stable and extremely low-latency Internet connection is critical.

 

Latency requirements for various applications

The latency required for an application depends heavily on its nature. Here are some examples:

• Web browsing and e-mail: Latency is less critical for web browsing and e-mail traffic. A latency of up to 100 ms is completely sufficient here, as real-time is not important.

 

• Online gaming: Latency is very important for online games, as delays directly affect the gaming experience. A latency of less than 50 ms is ideal here. Latencies above 100 ms can lead to noticeable delays that reduce the enjoyment of the game.

 

• VoIP (Voice over IP): Latencies of less than 150 ms are acceptable for Internet telephony. Anything above this can lead to noticeable delays and an unnatural conversation.

 

• Video conferences: Here, the latency should also be below 150 ms to ensure smooth communication. Higher latencies can lead to pauses in speech and overlaps.

 

• Livestreaming: When livestreaming events or videos, low latency is important, especially if there is interaction with the audience. Latencies of less than 50 ms are ideal.

 

• Human reaction times: For comparison - the average human reaction time is around 250 ms. Anything above this is perceived as a delay. Therefore, latencies of less than 250 ms are generally considered acceptable, but the lower the better.

 

Shared bandwidth: risks from performance fluctuations

There is a good reason why you often read statements such as "up to" when it comes to Internet bandwidth. This is because Internet providers usually divide their available capacity among all customers. Average usage is taken as a basis. This can lead to fluctuations in speed and latency if this average usage is exceeded. For example, the bandwidth of LTE can collapse if there are a lot of people in one place during events. Or the cable bandwidth drops significantly when many users are at home streaming movies in the evening. As a result, connections with a shared bandwidth often do not have a good expectation of the available bandwidth at any given time.

 

WiFi: The last meters

The Internet usually comes to the respective location via a router or modem. From there, it must be distributed to the users. Either via network cable or via WiFi. This local network must perform accordingly and transmit the data packets from the end devices at least at the same speed as the Internet connection. Otherwise, a "bottleneck" is created and a fast Internet connection is useless because the data in the local network is slowed down, so to speak, in the last few meters. This is particularly important in the business and industrial environment, as WiFi in particular is often a weak point when there is a high load.

 

The connection types in the overview

Unlike the providers in their advertising promises, we give rather conservative values here. With this table, we would like to provide an overview of the bandwidths that you can realistically expect.

 

 

Special case bonding

With bonding, several signals are combined with each other to ensure a particularly high speed or reliability. For example, several LTE connections, each of which provides 30 Mbit/s download speed, can be bundled to 70 - 90 Mbit/s. Fluctuations in individual connections are thus balanced out and even the failure of a connection can be intercepted without the user noticing. If low latency is important, for example for live streaming, all data can be sent simultaneously and in parallel via the available lines. This improves latency, as packet loss is almost completely prevented. You can find more information on bonding in our blog article.

 

For bonding, in addition to Internet connections, you need a bonding tunnel like the one we offer at Eventnet.

 

The applications

If you are planning event Internet, it is worth checking which Internet connection is suitable. This table gives a rough overview. Depending on how critical the connection is for the project, it is worth consulting in advance.