What is the bandwidth cutoff at which web maps fail to refresh effectively?

HaskettGeorge · ‎11-06-2014

We have been historically building web maps using the Viewer for Flex app with ArcGIS Server 10.2. Recently we have been also testing the new Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS.

While our maps appear to work great in house, we are experiencing screen refresh issues in some of our smaller field offices that have low connection speeds.

What can we do to resolve this?

Are there any settings we can change that will quicken the refresh of the ESRI basemaps?

What is the golden bandwidth speed at which web maps fail to refresh quickly?

Things seem to work fine when the bandwidth is over 12MBps, however its almost none responsive at 3MBps.

Our slower offices average around 6MBps.

What would be considered the minimum for being able to effectively use a web map?

Note that our internet is all pumped through the main office via a I believe a "VPM" line.

Thanks,

George Haskett

HaskettGeorge · ‎11-25-2014

Here is the official answer I got from ESRI:

Unfortunately, there really isn't a "golden bandwidth" at which performance goes from good to bad. The concepts behind bandwidth and performance are highly subjective and complex. What your user might consider reasonable speeds may be
completely different than what someone else might consider reasonable speeds.
To further complicate the discussion, maximum available bandwidth doesn't usually equate to actual available bandwidth. For example, multiple machines within a network can use up a small amount of bandwidth quickly. If only one machine is using that bandwidth, things will be a lot faster than if multiple machines are using the pool heavily.

Yet another complexity is the security tier of your network. Any routers, proxies, or firewalls in the network can impede and slow traffic with external resources, especially if they aren't configured with the proper exceptions. All of this is to say that the appropriate bandwidth level will vary greatly from one situation to the next. For these reasons, Esri hasn't released any "optimum" bandwidth suggestions. It's far too complicated of an answer to document.

Because of this, I can't really recommend a bandwidth level. The best answer will need to be based on the factors above. As a starting point, you might compare the bandwidth speeds of users who feel their experience is great with those users
who don't think it is. Also, a web debugging proxy such as Fiddler (www.fiddler2.com) can be very helpful in understanding the web traffic and speeds associated with them.

Finally, your ISP may be able to help you benchmark what speeds you need.

View solution in original post

HaskettGeorge · ‎11-25-2014

Here is the official answer I got from ESRI:

Unfortunately, there really isn't a "golden bandwidth" at which performance goes from good to bad. The concepts behind bandwidth and performance are highly subjective and complex. What your user might consider reasonable speeds may be
completely different than what someone else might consider reasonable speeds.
To further complicate the discussion, maximum available bandwidth doesn't usually equate to actual available bandwidth. For example, multiple machines within a network can use up a small amount of bandwidth quickly. If only one machine is using that bandwidth, things will be a lot faster than if multiple machines are using the pool heavily.

Yet another complexity is the security tier of your network. Any routers, proxies, or firewalls in the network can impede and slow traffic with external resources, especially if they aren't configured with the proper exceptions. All of this is to say that the appropriate bandwidth level will vary greatly from one situation to the next. For these reasons, Esri hasn't released any "optimum" bandwidth suggestions. It's far too complicated of an answer to document.

Because of this, I can't really recommend a bandwidth level. The best answer will need to be based on the factors above. As a starting point, you might compare the bandwidth speeds of users who feel their experience is great with those users
who don't think it is. Also, a web debugging proxy such as Fiddler (www.fiddler2.com) can be very helpful in understanding the web traffic and speeds associated with them.

Finally, your ISP may be able to help you benchmark what speeds you need.