Say I have a PC and a NAS connected to a router. On the PC I downloaded a file through torrenting. Now I want to both seed the file and locally upload it to my NAS at the same time. Would the two uploads fight each other for bandwidth? All the devices are 1GbE and the network speed is also 1Gbit/s. Would the upload speed to the NAS slow down because of the seeding from the same PC, and vice versa?
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Yes, they would. Unless you setup your network appropiatly. This will also be influeced by what your router can do and how it is manufactured.– SethCommented Jan 27, 2022 at 8:32
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Yeah that makes sense. Thanks for the help :)– kkycbleCommented Jan 27, 2022 at 8:49
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1 Answer
Say I have a PC and a NAS connected to a router. On the PC I downloaded a file through torrenting. Now I want to both seed the file and locally upload it to my NAS at the same time. Would the two uploads fight each other for bandwidth? All the devices are 1GbE and the network speed is also 1Gbit/s. Would the upload speed to the NAS slow down because of the seeding from the same PC, and vice versa?
Yes, because they literally must share the same physical 1Gbps Ethernet connection that goes out of your computer. Your WAN traffic is LAN traffic all the way to your router – it doesn't truly become "WAN traffic" until it leaves the router to the ISP.
(Though they shouldn't exactly "fight" for bandwidth; both TCP and BitTorrent's µTP both have flow control / congestion control mechanisms that work well and usually result in each transfer getting a fair share. Two downloads over a 1Gbps connection will just go at ~500Mbps each. And if your Internet WAN speed is lower, most likely the WAN upload will go at full speed and the NAS upload will get the rest.)
Now note that with Ethernet (which is full-duplex), "1Gbps" Gigabit Ethernet can simultaneously do 1Gbps down and 1Gbps up at the same time. So if you were downloading something from Internet at full speed, and uploading something else to your NAS, then those could both reach full speed. Two downloads or two uploads, however, have to share a single 1Gbps link.
(This doesn't apply to Wi-Fi, which is half-duplex, so uploads and downloads also have to share the same airtime. It's why wifi↔AP↔wifi transfers are slow.)
The Ethernet switch is usually not a limitation; all modern switches should have the internal capacity to reach full speed on all ports at once. So e.g. transfers between switch ports 1→2 and 3→4 could independently reach 1Gbps both. (But 1→3 and 2→3 would of course need to share the 1Gbps capacity of port 3.)
answered Jan 27, 2022 at 8:57
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Wow! Wonderful answer!! Thanks for clearing the confusion :) This is very helpful!!!– kkycbleCommented Jan 27, 2022 at 9:06
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I disagree about the ethernet switch not ususally being a limitation. Especially with home routers poor backplane designs aren't uncommon and rarely is backplane capacity stated. Most regular consumers won't notice the difference. With a 4 port switch you should have a 8 gbit backplane and this doesn't take into account the added features of a home routers and usually rather limited processing power.– SethCommented Jan 27, 2022 at 9:21
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@Seth: Maybe, but even home routers still don't involve the main CPU for LAN switching, they have a proper Ethernet switch built in to the SoC. Commented Jan 27, 2022 at 9:43
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The limited processing power comes into play when you go beyond simple L2 switching and either processing limits or thermal throttlign that might occure. A lot of home router do support more than simple L2 switching. It will vary by device and naturally by use case. It's just something to keep an eye out for.– SethCommented Jan 27, 2022 at 12:43