What can a lossy fibre in the middle of you r network infrastructure do to your network rate.......

Just a quick post regarding how we noticed packet errors on one of a balanced pair of links within our network. By taking the link down (at  ~1700 Wednesday) and  re-seating the end connections lead to a mark improvement in rate and reduction in packet loss.

Here is a plot of the number of packets on the link:

Packets on the link

This clearly shows the period with no packets on the link corresponding to when the link was down.

Now look at the packet errors and discards:

Error/Discards on the link

 This clearly shows packet errors/discards before the change; and none after the change. The packet "loss" rate was ~ 6k/240k or ~14k/560k which equates to ~2.5 %!!The really interest comes when looking at the data rate through the combined link during this period:

Rate

The data rate through the link pair increases by ~10x when the link is removed (form ~0.6Gbps to 6Gbps.) Also note that there is no dramatic loss when the secondary link is re-nabled  (at ~1130 on Thursday.)