Policing Network Traffic

What to do when network traffic threatens service speed and quality

Chris CahoeAs an enterprise network engineer at Ball State University (IN), Chris Cahoe has seen the university network evolve into an ISP for the campus community. On the front lines of network management at BSU, Cahoe has wrestled with performance problems such as latency, packet loss, and bandwidth issues that frustrate users across the campus and precipitate demands for improved services. But his strategies for network optimization have allowed the university to deliver fast, reliable connections to internet-based services without major investments in new infrastructure. How does he do it? Here, Cahoe offers his Top 10 practical tips for better network traffic management.

Want to be considered for Campus Technology's Top 10? Send your countdown and a brief background/bio summary to [email protected]

10

Monitor and baseline your network; get to know it well.

  • Knowing your network is the key element of a good management strategy.
  • Familiarity with your network will become your best management tool.
9

Maintain long-term graphs of latency, jitter, and packet loss.

  • Gone are the days of simply monitoring whether the network is up or down.
  • Keep detailed records as proof of proper network management.
8

Don't allow network links to become saturated by traffic from any single part of your organization.

  • Define maximums and minimums for traffic that traverses links that have limited capacity.
  • If links become saturated, make sure everyone gets a fair slice of the pie.
7

Subdivide network traffic by type of user or device.

  • Create maximum and minimum throughput priorities for user groups such as academic users, residence hall users, or data center devices.
  • Make sure low-priority users can't overrun higher-priority devices and vice versa, while competing for bandwidth to the commodity internet.
6

Prioritize traffic as real-time or non-real-time.

  • Do not prioritize based on the perceived "importance" of the application.
  • An H.264 packet that is two seconds late is useless for streaming video; an e-mail that is two seconds late is still an e-mail!
5

Create contingency plans that address external outages.

  • Make sure your network is multi-homed; use multiple providers.
  • Be ready to alter your users' bandwidth priorities when your internet capacity becomes drastically reduced during an outage.
4

Give users the option to secure their traffic over the wired and wireless networks.

  • Encryption might not always be necessary, but make sure the capability is there.
3

Limit or block protocols that under normal circumstances shouldn't be used.

  • Just because the network can transmit all types of traffic doesn't mean it should.
  • Bot-infected computers could be using up bandwidth you paid a pretty penny for.
2

Watch out for end devices with abnormally high numbers of connections or connection rates.

  • If a device has connections that number in the thousands, and it's not a server, it's time to start placing bets on just how many viruses the device has.
1

Plan ahead for network growth.

  • If anything is a certainty, it's that bandwidth requirements will increase each year.
  • Don't be caught off guard by next year's demands!

Featured

  • two large brackets facing each other with various arrows, circles, and rectangles flowing between them

    1EdTech Partners with DXtera to Support Ed Tech Interoperability

    1EdTech Consortium and DXtera Institute have announced a partnership aimed at improving access to learning data in postsecondary and higher education.

  • Abstract geometric shapes including hexagons, circles, and triangles in blue, silver, and white

    Google Launches Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a new artificial intelligence model designed to reason through problems before delivering answers, a shift that marks a major leap in AI capability, according to the company.

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • stylized AI code and a neural network symbol, paired with glitching code and a red warning triangle

    New Anthropic AI Models Demonstrate Coding Prowess, Behavior Risks

    Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its most advanced artificial intelligence models to date, boasting a significant leap in autonomous coding capabilities while simultaneously revealing troubling tendencies toward self-preservation that include attempted blackmail.