What is Bandwidth Delay Product?
The Bandwidth Delay Product (BDP) is a measure of the amount of data that can be in transit on a network at any given time. It represents the maximum amount of unacknowledged data that can exist in the network.
Formula
$$\text{BDP} = \text{Bandwidth} \times \text{Round-Trip Delay}$$
Where:
- Bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bits/s)
- Round-Trip Delay is measured in seconds (s)
- BDP is measured in bits
Example
For a network with:
- Bandwidth: 150,000 bits/s
- Round-Trip Delay: 0.2 s
$$\text{BDP} = 150{,}000 \text{ bits/s} \times 0.2 \text{ s} = 30{,}000 \text{ bits}$$
This means up to 30,000 bits can be in transit simultaneously on this network connection.
Applications
The Bandwidth Delay Product is important for:
- TCP window sizing
- Network buffer allocation
- Performance optimization of high-latency networks
- Satellite and long-distance communications