Home Switch Buffer

[nydennis]

I am in the process of buying a new switch for my house. I'm seeing the different buffer sizes from 128k, to 2mb. Does this make much of a difference in a house setup?

Off this switch I will be running the line to several computers, NAS, Dune HD players, Tivo, etc.

Just want to make sure I buy the right thing off the bat

 

[JackMDS]

Bigger buffer is considered better.

However in Home network (like the one that you listed) it does not really make a difference, you need a much larger number of computers to see the benefit.

 

[nydennis]

Bigger buffer is considered better.

However in Home network (like the one that you listed) it does not really make a difference, you need a much larger number of computers to see the benefit.

Figured as much but figured it never hurts to ask. Thanks

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Does this just refer to the capacity for ARP table entries?

 

[degibson]

http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/TechnicalIntro

 

[imagoon]

Larger buffers are useful when going from 1gig to 100mbps. Some of the really cheap switches out there don't have enough buffer to allow a 1gig system saturate a 100meg device making anything going from 1gig to 100meg worse than 100 to 100.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Ok, so its actual buffer for data then and not just a mac table?

 

[Mark R]

Yes. It is an actual buffer. It's used when more data arrived at the switch destined for a port than the destination port can accept.

E.g. a 1G port transmits several packets to a 100M port; or 2 1G ports simultaneously transmit packets destined to the same 1G port.

The idea is that the switch will queue up packets in its buffer, and transmit them as soon as the port is available. This avoids packet loss which can cripple performance.