Bandwidth is usually measured in kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps). This value does not depend on network congestion because it represents the maximum possible speed.
In fact, throughput shows how fast internal network operations such as data packets are performed across the network via all the communication nodes.
For example, since virtual machines are hosted on common hardware, network bandwidth must be allocated fairly between virtual machines on the same piece of hardware. Larger virtual machines are given more bandwidth than smaller ones. The limitation applies to all network traffic leaving the virtual machine, regardless of its destination.
What affects bandwidth
Bandwidth depends on the qualities and characteristics of the physical medium, like the availability of copper cable or optical fiber. For example, in the case of video streaming over a network, another parameter that determines the speed is the transmission technology (e.g. Ethernet).
The video transmission speed depends not only on the network bandwidth, but also on the degree of compression, since compression reduces the amount of data transmitted.
Difference between bandwidth and related terms
Speed is how fast information is received or downloaded, while bandwidth is how much of that information you receive every second.
Latency is sometimes called latency or ping rate. It’s the delay you experience while waiting for something to download. If bandwidth is the amount of information transferred per second, latency is the time it takes for the information to reach you from the source.
Throughput is how much information is actually delivered in a given amount of time. Thus, if bandwidth is the maximum amount of data, then throughput is how much of that data reaches the recipient, taking into account latency, network speed, packet loss, and other factors.