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Can someone please tell how many maximum terabytes of user data can be passed in a day in a data migration application involving both client and servers on the same intranet, assuming that network is the main bottleneck?

(I am attempting to make the below calculation, but not sure if it is correct:

The fastest ethernet connection is 1000BASE-T, which has speed of 1Gbit/sec. Hence, max. No. of bytes that can be sent is 0.125 Giga Bytes per second => implies (0.125 x 60 x 60 x 24=) 10800 GB per day => implies that 10.54 TB per day can be transmitted over the wires.)

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Interesting question but not really programming-related. A better fit for ServerFault.com IMO. – Paul Sasik Mar 30 '11 at 0:18
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What if you have 10 or 15 1Gb lines? How about fiber? – Pete Mar 30 '11 at 0:21
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That calculation is about as useful as assuming that my engine can turn at Max 9000 RPM, the gear ratio in overdrive is 0.6, I have a 3.42 differential and 18" wheels (82.1" in circumference). Thus, 9000/60/3.42/0.6*82.1/12 = 500.12183 feet per second = 340.9921 Miles per hour. In reality, there are MANY PCs connected to each switch, so your theoretical calculation is off by factors of hundreds for even a modest office network... not that there really is a practical use for it :-) – Mike Pennington Mar 30 '11 at 0:28
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Remember that ethernet doesn't prevent collisions, it detects them. So you can never get near the theoretical max because packets collide, and have to be retransmitted after a wait. – Paul Tomblin Mar 30 '11 at 1:39
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@Paul - Switches and full duplex connections more or less do away with collisions. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet. – poke Mar 30 '11 at 2:18
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1 Answer

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Assuming ideal conditions, full switching traffic, app isn't waiting for ACKs and such, and possibly other factors: 1 Gbps = ~8.6 TB over a typical IP session (assuming 20% IP overhead, which can be reduced if the network supports jumbo frames). If the network isn't routed, another protocol could reduce the overhead further. Multiple links could be aggregated to increase this transfer rate.

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