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I recently discovered the networkquality tool on Mac. As far as I can tell it's the only tool that measures simultaneous upload and download speeds which is mor

I recently discovered the networkquality tool on Mac. As far as I can tell it's the only tool that measures simultaneous upload and download speeds which is more reflective of real world video conferencing use cases. I was using it to see if my new hardcore gaming router gave me better range than the old one. On isolated up and down tests, it did. But on combined tests, the advantage especially for upload disappeared.

CrLf 3y ago
> which is more reflective of real world video conferencing use cases What's more reflective of real world use cases is a hot discussion topic. :) The "networkQuality" tool on macOS and other implementations(1) of the "RPM" algorithm(2) are very good to see how an Internet connection behaves under high stress. But the real world is seldom high stress (100Mbps+ connections are rarely pushed to the limit, honestly). In your example, video conferencing indeed does simulataneous upload and download, but it's also low bandwidth (relatively speaking) and doesn't usually come close to saturating a connection. It can impacted by other traffic in the same connection though. Which can come from a single user, or multiple users sharing the same connection. And neither networkQuality nor Cloudflare's speed test measure how a connection behaves with multiple users stressing a connection. In the end, which tool you use depends on what you're trying to measure. For me, the Cloudflare speed test is closer to measuring what I experience in real world use. (1) https://github.com/network-quality/goresponsiveness https://github.com/network-quality/goresponsiveness (2) https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-cpaasch-ippm-responsiveness-00.html https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-cpaasch-ippm-responsiv...
- xyzelement 3y ago
  Yes fair enough. I know my link is great - I pay for 300 up and down and that's what I get. I was running measurements to track degradation in wifi performance due to distance from the router - out in the yard - and how much difference one of these 8 antenna monster routers made. My use case is 100 video conferencing that I want to do reliability from the yard.

CrLf 3y ago

> which is more reflective of real world video conferencing use cases What's more reflective of real world use cases is a hot discussion topic. :) The "networkQuality" tool on macOS and other implementations(1) of the "RPM" algorithm(2) are very good to see how an Internet connection behaves under high stress. But the real world is seldom high stress (100Mbps+ connections are rarely pushed to the limit, honestly). In your example, video conferencing indeed does simulataneous upload and download, but it's also low bandwidth (relatively speaking) and doesn't usually come close to saturating a connection. It can impacted by other traffic in the same connection though. Which can come from a single user, or multiple users sharing the same connection. And neither networkQuality nor Cloudflare's speed test measure how a connection behaves with multiple users stressing a connection. In the end, which tool you use depends on what you're trying to measure. For me, the Cloudflare speed test is closer to measuring what I experience in real world use. (1) https://github.com/network-quality/goresponsiveness https://github.com/network-quality/goresponsiveness (2) https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-cpaasch-ippm-responsiveness-00.html https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-cpaasch-ippm-responsiv...

xyzelement 3y ago
Yes fair enough. I know my link is great - I pay for 300 up and down and that's what I get. I was running measurements to track degradation in wifi performance due to distance from the router - out in the yard - and how much difference one of these 8 antenna monster routers made. My use case is 100 video conferencing that I want to do reliability from the yard.