Optimizing for network throughput

What is the difference between bandwidth and throughput in the context of network performance on AWS?

Bandwidth refers to the maximum rate of data transfer across a given path, while throughput is the actual rate of successful message delivery over a communication channel. In AWS, bandwidth might be provisioned by choosing the appropriate instance or network service, whereas throughput will be affected by various factors such as network congestion, packet size, protocols used, and network configuration. To maximize throughput, you may need to optimize these elements according to your workload.

How does the choice of an EC2 instance type impact network throughput?

The choice of an EC2 instance type significantly impacts network throughput, as different instance types offer different levels of network performance. AWS categorizes instances based on their network performance from Low to 100 Gigabit. To optimize network throughput, one should select an instance type that provides sufficient network performance (‘up to 10 Gbps’, ‘up to 25 Gbps’, ’50 Gbps’, or ‘100 Gbps’ for example) for the expected workload.

What role does Amazon CloudFront play in optimizing network throughput?

Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service that caches content at edge locations closer to the end-users, which helps in reducing latency and improving data transfer rates. By bringing the data closer to the users and by optimizing the network protocols, CloudFront improves network throughput for user access.

In AWS, how does the use of Enhanced Networking contribute to increased network throughput?

Enhanced Networking on AWS uses single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) to provide high-performance networking capabilities on supported EC2 instances. It allows the instances to bypass the virtualization layer and directly access the physical network interface card (NIC), greatly reducing the latency, jitter, and CPU overhead that’s commonly associated with virtualized networking stacks, hence optimizing network throughput.

How can you optimize throughput when using Amazon S3 for data storage and retrieval?

To optimize throughput with Amazon S3, you can use techniques such as parallelizing GET and PUT requests, utilizing S3 Transfer Acceleration for faster uploads, enabling S3 multipart uploads for large files, and leveraging Amazon S3’s Cross-Region Replication to reduce latency and improve data transfer rates by storing copies of the data in geographically diverse regions closer to the users.

How does adjusting the TCP window size affect network throughput on AWS, and is it configurable?

The TCP window size determines how much data can be in transit before receiving an acknowledgment. If the window size is too small, then the network throughput can be limited by the amount of data allowed on the network, waiting for an acknowledgment. To optimize throughput on AWS, instance operating systems should be configured to use TCP window scaling which allows for a larger amount of data to be unacknowledged and therefore improves throughput. Yes, it is configurable within the EC2 instance’s operating system.

What AWS service can you leverage to monitor network throughput and identify bottlenecks?

AWS CloudWatch can be leveraged to monitor the network throughput and performance of your AWS resources and applications. It provides detailed metrics on network traffic which can help identify bottlenecks. Additionally, VPC Flow Logs can also be used for monitoring and logging network traffic, which can assist in identifying throughput issues.

How does the use of placement groups in AWS EC2 impact network throughput?

Placement groups, specifically ‘cluster’ placement groups, can improve network throughput by grouping instances within a low-latency network in a single Availability Zone (AZ). This proximity allows instances to take full advantage of the high-bandwidth, low-latency network performance necessary for tightly-coupled node-to-node communication that is often required for high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

What is the significance of the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) in optimizing network throughput on AWS, and what is the default MTU size for EC2 instances?

The Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is the size of the largest packet that can be transmitted over a network. On AWS, the default MTU size for EC2 instances is 1500 bytes for IPv4 and 1280 bytes for IPv Optimizing the MTU size (e.g., using jumbo frames with an MTU of up to 9001 bytes) can reduce overhead and improve network throughput. However, it is essential that all networking components along the path support the configured MTU to prevent fragmentation which could negatively impact performance.

Explain how Amazon’s Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) can help optimize application throughput?

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses. It can automatically adjust to changes in incoming application traffic, providing greater fault tolerance for your applications. ELB supports routing and managing traffic to get higher throughput rates and more consistent performance by automatically scaling its request handling capacity in response to incoming application traffic.