We're looking at hooking up 48 small embedded systems with 10/100 Ethernet ports to an Ethernet switch and then have that switch talk to a server upstream via a faster connection. I have a couple of questions about that scenario:
- What kind of upstream connection is best (fiber, other?)
- Would it be reasonable to download 1GB/hour from each of the 48 systems concurrently? We'd be using some kind of TCP based protocol of our own design.
Thanks,
Andrew
Best Answer
No easy way to find out or to help you without more information.
Fibre connections are good for linking routers to other routers or very high end equipment to routers.
If the server and the router support fibre, why not!
However, as for sustained bandwidth and if 1GB/hour is possible... Follow this advice:
Cheap £20 switch = bad
Expensive gear = good (typically)
Hopefully you get what I am saying... You get what you pay for, as for actual usage, depends on many factors (including the drivers on the embedded systems - can they sustain 100Mb/s each at full utilisation?).
I hope this helps and happy to answer any follow up questions.