Peer-to-Peer Video Bandwidth Requirements

As mentioned before, the new functionality in Lync 2013 does not come without a price. Let’s be honest—many organizations are not even using HD video today because of the network impact. Many organizations are moving toward adopting and supporting this technology, but for the majority of organizations it is not widely deployed yet. Table 19.3 lists some bandwidth examples for Lync 2013 that are provided by Microsoft.

Table 19.3. Lync 2013 Bandwidth Requirements

When comparing the bandwidth numbers to those for Lync 2010, you can see that there is not much of a difference. There is essentially the introduction of 1080p video, which, as you can see, comes with a much larger bandwidth utilization. For organizations currently exploring 1080p video on other platforms, these numbers should be similar to those in the rest of the industry.

One area that Microsoft can improve on is to introduce more bandwidth compression. The H.264 codec does allow for more compression than Microsoft is currently using, with bandwidth reductions up to 50% of what is displayed in Table 19.3. When and whether Microsoft will choose to introduce this technology is unknown. A major caveat of introducing that bandwidth reduction is an even greater processing load on the endpoints.

When organizations are planning for peer-to-peer bandwidth, it is recommended that they consider the max possible bandwidth used in a media stream, which is what is shown in Table 19.3. However, there is the concept of an average bandwidth usage to be considered as well. In video calls, only data that is changed is sent. For example, less bandwidth is used with less movement. If I am sitting still in my office chair, and none of my background is changing, technically less data is being transmitted, and you will see a reduced bandwidth utilization. Additionally, the capability to dynamically reduce the frame rate allows for less bandwidth utilization as well.