Improving network performance by traffic reduction

This paper presents the problems existing in a typical campus network system which have a negative effect on network performance, and discusses approaches in network management to improve the performance by traffic reduction. Statistics are gathered to show the variation of average response time from critical network devices. It turns out that the Internet servers suffer from a more frequently varying response time than the common intra-network servers. It also shows that better network performance results if the network traffic is kept as local as possible. The main concerns in identifying the network problems include the analysis of the distribution of the critical network resources, network segment workload and information flow; and the routing policy and the configuration of different workgroups. To reduce the network traffic and improve network performance, different strategies in network management are discussed: decentralizing the network resources and centralizing the information control by building Intranets, while both involve constructing appropriate workgroups using VLAN technology