Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

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Knives*
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Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by Knives* »

Hi,

I have a friend who purchased a server with NFOservers and we are considering switching to a VDS server. I have several very specific question that are important so it must be answered by someone that knows the answer. It cannot be an estimate or an assumption.
  • How much bandwidth does a Battlefield 3 server use per month per slot? Let's assume full 24/7 for an entire month straight.
  • Does the bandwidth fluctuate at all per slot depending on how much activity the server has? What I mean is, would a 16 slot server use less bandwidth per slot than a 64 slot server per slot that is full?
  • Does the bandwidth fluctuate based on the game type being played? If so, how much does it vary per game type?

Are these numbers correct?

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/fo ... 9538313527
According to http://wargeeks.org/showthread.php/1064 ... onsumption [wargeeks.org] , Battlefield 3 uses approximately 0.0101 Mb/s on the PC per person
PC server, with 64 people, the bandwidth that would be output by the server would be about 0.6464 MB/s
Thanks.
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Edge100x
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Re: Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by Edge100x »

Bandwidth usage can't easily be measured per-player because the gain isn't linear as the number of players in the server increases. The bandwidth would indeed also fluctuate depending on the amount of action going on in the game, so some game modes likely use more than others.

We haven't done much research into this because it hasn't come up with VDSes; so much bandwidth is included that we haven't had a customer yet who used more than the default allotment. A quick look at one customer's 24/7-full servers tells me that a completely full 64-slot server might use up to around 6 Mbps outbound and 2 Mbps inbound, though, at its worst. Typical usage over the entire month would be far less, since servers are rarely at the full 64 slots 24/7.
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Re: Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by Knives* »

Thank you for such a quick response. A few more questions...
  • Is it possible to switch the server over to a VDS and keep the same server IP and port? Presently it is hosted near NYC. It will stay in that location if we switch it over.
  • The server we have now was ordered on December 27th, 2011. Since one week is used up now, the value of the remaining month for the server is approx. $36 presently. Is it possible to switch it over to a VDS (quad core - $100/month) and pay the extra amount of approx. $64 if it was ordered today?
  • Comparing to what we presently have, would a VDS server provide better, equal or slightly less performance if it (for example) ran just two 64 slot servers on it that were active and full 24/7? Just a best guess is fine for this question.
Thanks!
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Edge100x
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Re: Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by Edge100x »

It would not be possible to switch the server onto the VDS if you converted your package, as it currently stands. The current server would be deleted as part of this process.

If you adjusted into a VDS, you would only pay the difference in price between the two, prorated to cover the remainder of your time.

The performance of a BF3 server on a VDS would be at most equivalent to the performance of a standalone game server. We don't officially support servers over 48 slots on our VDSes because of the CPU resources that it uses and the variance in VDS-hosting machines: http://www.nfoservers.com/forums/viewto ... =70&t=5815
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Re: Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by Knives* »

Ok, thank you very much. :)
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Re: Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by Area51Brett »

Edge100x wrote:Bandwidth usage can't easily be measured per-player because the gain isn't linear as the number of players in the server increases. The bandwidth would indeed also fluctuate depending on the amount of action going on in the game, so some game modes likely use more than others.

We haven't done much research into this because it hasn't come up with VDSes; so much bandwidth is included that we haven't had a customer yet who used more than the default allotment. A quick look at one customer's 24/7-full servers tells me that a completely full 64-slot server might use up to around 6 Mbps outbound and 2 Mbps inbound, though, at its worst. Typical usage over the entire month would be far less, since servers are rarely at the full 64 slots 24/7.
Is this megabits or megabytes?
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soja
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Re: Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by soja »

Megabits
Not a NFO employee
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Re: Battlefield 3 Bandwidth

Post by Area51Brett »

soja wrote:Megabits
ok thanks, just checking.
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