Choose network protocols to improve performance

Selecting appropriate network protocols is crucial to optimize communication between systems and networks, thereby enhancing your workload’s performance. The right choice can significantly reduce latency and improve throughput while addressing jitter and bandwidth demands.

Best Practices

Select Appropriate Network Protocols

• Evaluate the performance characteristics of different network protocols such as TCP, UDP, HTTP/2, and QUIC. Understand how these protocols can be leveraged based on your workload’s requirements for latency, throughput, and reliability.
• Conduct performance testing with various protocols in your workload to identify which results in better response times and lower resource utilization.
• Optimize communication patterns by using asynchronous communication methods where applicable, which can reduce latency and increase throughput.
• Consider the use of load balancers and CDN (Content Delivery Network) services that can augment the performance of network protocols in your architecture.
• Regularly review and update your protocol choices to align with new technologies and best practices, ensuring that your networking resources remain efficient and effective.

Questions to ask your team

• Have you assessed the latency and throughput requirements of your workload?
• What network protocols are currently being used for communication between systems?
• How do these protocols impact the overall performance of your workload?
• Have you tested the performance of different network protocols under various loads?
• Are there any physical constraints affecting your choice of network protocols?
• Have you considered the use of edge locations to enhance performance?
• How do you ensure that the selected protocols align with your compliance and security requirements?

Who should be doing this?

Network Architect

• Design network architecture that meets latency and throughput requirements.
• Evaluate and select appropriate network protocols based on workload performance needs.
• Implement network solutions that optimize data transfer and reduce jitter.
• Collaborate with development teams to integrate selected protocols efficiently.

DevOps Engineer

• Monitor network performance and troubleshoot issues related to protocol efficiency.
• Automate network configuration to ensure optimal performance and scalability.
• Conduct tests and benchmarks to evaluate the impact of chosen protocols on workload performance.
• Work with Network Architect to deploy solutions that optimize resource placement.

Cloud Solutions Architect

• Advise on cloud networking best practices to enhance performance efficiency.
• Assess and recommend cloud services that align with protocol selections.
• Facilitate the integration of edge locations to minimize latency and improve responsiveness.
• Ensure that security measures do not compromise performance while using required protocols.

Network Administrator

• Configure and manage network devices and settings based on architectural designs.
• Conduct regular reviews and updates of network protocols in use.
• Optimize existing configurations to meet changing workload demands.
• Maintain documentation of network protocols and configurations for compliance and troubleshooting.

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Network Protocol Selection Guide: A comprehensive guide that outlines best practices for choosing network protocols based on workload performance requirements such as latency and throughput. It includes factors to consider for optimal performance.
• Network Configuration Checklist: A checklist to ensure that all necessary steps are taken when configuring networking resources, highlighting recommended protocols for different performance scenarios.
• Performance Efficiency Dashboard: An interactive dashboard that monitors network performance metrics related to chosen protocols, providing insights into latency, throughput, and bandwidth usage.
• Networking Resources Strategy Document: A strategic document that outlines the approach for selecting and configuring networking resources, detailing how protocol choices can influence overall system performance.
• Networking Optimization Playbook: A playbook for IT teams that lays out a series of steps and considerations for optimizing network configurations, including selecting the right communication protocols for performance efficiency.

Cloud Services

AWS

• Amazon VPC: Allows you to create a virtual network where you can define your own IP address range, subnets, route tables, and configure network gateways to optimize network performance.
• AWS Global Accelerator: Routes traffic to optimal endpoints based on health, geography, and routing policies, improving performance for applications by minimizing latency.
• AWS Direct Connect: Provides a direct connection between your on-premises locations and AWS, helping to reduce network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience.
• Amazon CloudFront: A content delivery network (CDN) that accelerates the delivery of your content by routing requests to the nearest edge location, reducing latency.

Azure

• Azure Virtual Network: Enables the creation of isolated virtual networks that can connect to on-premises resources securely and efficiently, providing control over IP address blocks, DNS settings, and security policies.
• Azure Traffic Manager: Optimizes the performance of your applications by directing user traffic to the closest endpoint based on the lowest latency.
• Azure ExpressRoute: Establishes a private connection between your on-premises infrastructure and Microsoft Azure, providing more reliability and faster speeds compared to typical internet connections.

Google Cloud Platform

• Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Offers a customizable private network, allowing for optimized routing and traffic management to meet latency and throughput requirements.
• Google Cloud CDN: Fastly delivers content to users from locations closest to them, lowering latency and improving load times.
• Cloud Interconnect: Provides a direct physical connection between your on-premises network and Google Cloud, enabling low-latency and high-throughput connections.

Question: How do you select and configure networking resources in your workload?
Pillar: Performance Efficiency (Code: PERF)