Question

How does streaming traffic differ from browsing traffic (in terms of network utilization)?

Answer 1

Difference between streaming traffic and browsing traffic:

• Online Streaming is online access of large files like video and audio from an internet server and the downloading of the packet will be in sequential manner so the content can be experience in real time as in a media device like television.
• Browsing is the access of a web server content and usually no specific order may not be required. The content display will be possible only after entire content download.
• The streaming traffic will be higher and it required a higher bandwidth than browsing traffic.
• The streaming traffic will be more continuous than browsing traffic.
• There can be various traffic for a same content based on quality of the content but this quality change is not much applicable with browsing traffic, thus constant traffic for a particular content.
• Streaming traffic uses the network almost entirely for hassle free streaming.
• The browsing traffic is less so the network utilization is comparably less.
• A constant supply for packets is required in streaming traffic so the streaming traffic utilization will be optimized.