Network performance is the analysis and review of collective network statistics, to define the quality of services offered by the underlying computer network.
It is a qualitative and quantitative process that measures and defines the performance level of a given network. It guides a network administrator in the review, measure and improvement of network services.
Network performance is primarily measured from an end-user perspective (i.e. quality of network services delivered to the user). Broadly, network performance is measured by reviewing the statistics and metrics from the following network components:
- Network bandwidth or capacity - Available data transfer
- Network throughput - Amount of data successfully transferred over the network in a given time
- Network delay, latency and jittering - Any network issue causing packet transfer to be slower than usual
- Data loss and network errors - Packets dropped or lost in transmission and delivery