The essensys Platform provides a number of bandwidth graphs, allowing you to understand bandwidth usage at your sites as well as by individual occupiers. This lets you manage services, troubleshoot problems (resolving contention, for example), and analyze your occupier or operator usage.
The shared pipe view and client breakdown reports are used in combination to understand the utilization of the shared pipes at your site by your occupiers. This lets you find out who is using the most bandwidth, and lets you suggest changes to their services or usage if necessary.
For more information, see About bandwidth pipes.
Shared pipe report and client breakdown
Step 1 - Access the bandwidth reports
All site reports are located in the Operations section of the essensys Platform. To open the correct section:
In the main menu, click Operations.
The Operations page opens. By default, Reports is selected from the overhead menu.Under Network reports, click Bandwidth.
The Bandwidth usage report opens. By default, the report shows a summary of the Site Bandwidth Usage view of today's data.
Step 2 - Show bandwidth use on a shared pipe
View the bandwidth usage for all occupiers using a shared pipe at your selected site. This view allows you to monitor usage and identify any peaks that might affect your occupiers.
Select the site whose shared pipe usage you wish to view from the Site Selector.
From the View drop-down list, select either of the shared pipes:
Superfast
Standard
Check the report for peaks in bandwidth usage on your selected pipe.
This report shows the bandwidth usage for all occupiers using the selected shared pipe. Peaks indicate where there are periods of heavier usage.
Note: The pipe threshold is displayed at the top of the graph. Peaks in usage that approach the circuit threshold could indicate that the bandwidth is over-utilized. This could result in occupiers experiencing slow speeds, network drops, network lags, difficulty connecting to Wi-Fi, and so on.
Step 3 - Understand occupier use at peaks
To find out which occupiers are using the most bandwidth on the shared pipe at a selected time (such as when a peak begins), you can view the Client breakdown detail from the shared pipe summary.
Optionally, zoom in to the area of your graph that shows the period of bandwidth use that you are interested in.
Note: You need to use the Time period settings to ensure that you are viewing both the summary and client breakdown during the same period.In the Time period field, click Custom.
Use the From/To fields to specify the start and end of the period.
In the Detail field, click Client breakdown.
The client breakdown graph for the selected time period opens. The occupiers with the highest bandwidth use on the selected pipe are shown in descending order.
Hover over an occupier name to view more detail about their bandwidth use over the selected period.
Optionally, use the Type buttons to view upload and download usage separately.
Optionally, see which Applications (protocols) and IP Addresses are making up the bandwidth usage for an occupier:
From the View drop-down list, select the occupier name under Shared.
Use the Details buttons to drill into the usage by the selected occupier:
Click Applications to view the bandwidth use by particular protocols or applications. See Bandwidth usage by application.
Click IP Breakdown to view the usage by IP addresses belonging to the occupier. See Bandwidth usage by IP breakdown.
What next?
Typically, there is no need to take any further action. Monitoring your shared pipes usually indicates that your occupiers are able to access bandwidth on the shared pipe to their satisfaction.
If your occupiers are experiencing "over-utilization" or want to upgrade their bandwidth provision:
Discuss their current bandwidth usage with the occupier in question.
Upgrade the occupier to the next pipe to make more bandwidth available to them. For example, an occupier using the shared standard pipe may be upgraded to the shared superfast pipe or to a dedicated pipe.
For more information, see Diagnosing over-utilization.
Shared pipe usage and client breakdown reports
Shared pipe summary report
Where one of the pipes is selected in the View drop-down list, the report describes the bandwidth usage by all occupiers who share the selected pipe. Selecting this option enables the Client breakdown button.
For details of the settings, see Bandwidth usage summary.
Client breakdown report
The client breakdown view shows the occupiers that share the selected pipe (view) in order of bandwidth usage (from most to least). By default, the graph shows both usage for downloads and uploads.
On the report itself, you can:
Hover your cursor over a bar in the chart to view a details tool tip showing the upload and download usage associated with the occupier.
Diagnosing over-utilization
Over-utilization happens when the bandwidth is being used more than the connection can handle. This may result in your occupiers experiencing slow speeds, network drops, network lags, difficulty connecting to Wi-Fi, and so on.
For occupiers on a shared pipe, over-utilization happens when the combined bandwidth usage by all occupiers approaches the allocation threshold. In the case of over-utilization, the graph will look like this:
During period A, the bandwidth is intermittently over-utilized.
During period B, when the usage meets the threshold, the bandwidth is completely over-utilized.
Note: The same rules apply to the standard and superfast pipes. The only difference is that the superfast pipe is designed to operate faster than the standard pipe, so occupiers will experience faster speeds.
What do I do if the pipe is over-utilized?
You will need to check which occupiers are using the vast majority of the bandwidth, by checking the Client Breakdown. See Check occupier bandwidth usage.
You may then want to get the occupier to alter their usage, or upgrade them to a faster pipe. See What next?