Bandwidth Classification and Allocation

The Bandwidth Classification and Allocation feature provides visibility into the inbound and outbound WAN traffic on your Cloud Connector including how it is allocated and utilized by different traffic types. This allows administrators to monitor network demand in real time, identify bandwidth bottlenecks, and adjust allocations to ensure high-priority traffic is always served.

Bandwidth to and from the Cloud Connector can be classified into three separate traffic classes:
  • Control Channel: Traffic generated by the platform itself (e.g., services, agent, logger, system processes). This is critical for system health and connectivity. By default, the control channel allocation is fixed at 20% of available bandwidth.
  • User Apps: Traffic for user-deployed applications on the Cloud Connector. This class is adjustable and usually allotted a significant share.
  • Device Connections: All other LAN forwarded device-to-device traffic moving through the Cloud Connector.
You may allocate bandwidth between User Apps and Device Connections in 10% increments; the Control Channel remains at its fixed minimum to maintain platform reliability. The sum of all allocations always equals 100%.

Understanding the Bandwidth Distribution Graph

The bandwidth distribution graph is found on the Cloud Connector's Network tab when you select a WAN interface. The chart title and supporting text dynamically indicate when any class has reached a critical threshold. The main visualization is a two-ring donut chart:
  • Outer Ring: Shows real-time usage of bandwidth within each class.
  • Inner Ring: Illustrates the allocated bandwidth for each class as a segment of the total.
Hovering over any segment lets you see:
  • The traffic class type
  • The current data usage
  • The configured or default allocation as a percentage of total bandwidth
  • The percentage of allocation used in real time
  • The transmit (Tx) packet drop counts
  • The receive (Rx) packet drop counts

Note:

If a class exceeds its allocation noted as reaching 100%, traffic from this class may experience packet drops. These drops are shown in the chart’s tooltip (Tx or Rx drop fields).