Capacity Planning Tips

The following section outlines important bandwidth requirements to consider when you are negotiating network capacity.

  • Ensure sufficient bandwidth is allocated to PCoIP traffic by determining appropriate User Experience Profiles for your User Roles and setting PCoIP Session Parameters accordingly. For Knowledge Workers using Windows applications, plan for an average of 150–250 kbps for standard office applications.

  • Consider any additional bandwidth required for audio input/output and USB traffic. Configure the PCoIP Zero Client bandwidth limit parameter to limit USB traffic. Configure a PCoIP Session Audio Bandwidth Limit if needed.

  • Plan for 1-2 Mbps per simultaneous user watching a 480p window or 10-13 Mbps for a 1080p video window at default image quality settings. Refer to PCoIP Ultra benchmarks for additional estimates based on protocol modes and quality settings.

  • Ensure that network bandwidth analysis includes observing total network capacity guidelines (for example, peak bandwidth should be less than 80% of theoretical link capacity.)

  • Ensure that there is sufficient bandwidth headroom for bursts of PCoIP protocol traffic.

  • Plan for a minimum bandwidth headroom of 500 kbps to 1 Mbps. The actual peak bandwidth required will depend on the user and applications (for example, the number of pixels changing, the level and complexity of compression, and the display frame rate).

  • Plan for adequate peak capacity for Remote Workstation Card users. Many workstation applications require a higher peak bandwidth that varies per user and imaging workload. It also depends on how many users are sharing the link.

  • Over-subscription analysis (optional) can enable efficient link sizing while maintaining a reasonable expectation that peak bandwidth is available per session.

  • Consider configuring a Maximum PCoIP Session Bandwidth Limit when operating in a known constrained network environment. Additional bandwidth savings can be achieved by optimizing Windows desktop experience settings, reducing the display resolution or limiting the number of connected displays.

  • PCoIP Ultra in GPU Offload mode configured for 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling offers additional bandwidth savings for deployments offering hardware video encoder support (e.g. NVIDIA NVENC or macOS hardware). For more information on Session Planning for PCoIP Ultra, see here.