Sensor Polling Bandwidth Calculator

Work out sensor polling bandwidth instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Sensor Polling Bandwidth Calculator

Polling bandwidth is sensors divided by interval, multiplied by the round-trip byte count. The interval is the dominant lever: halving it doubles both bandwidth and the request rate the collector must sustain. Push or event-driven reporting eliminates the request half entirely and only sends data when something changes.

Formula

Polling load

polls per second = sensors / interval; bytes per second = polls x (request + response); Mbps = bytes x 8 / 1e6

Worked example

With the default values below, Sensor Polling Bandwidth Calculator returns Polling bandwidth of 0.667. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Sensors polledminimum 1: 5,000
Polling intervalminimum 0.1 s: 30 s
Request sizeminimum 1 bytes: 180 bytes
Response sizeminimum 1 bytes: 320 bytes

Results

Polling bandwidth: 0.667 Mbps
Polls per second: 166.7
Daily data volume: 6.71 GiB
Bytes per poll exchange: 500 bytes

Step by step

1Values used
2Polling load
3Polling bandwidth= 0.667 Mbps
4Polls per second= 166.7
5Daily data volume= 7,200,000,000
6Bytes per poll exchange= 500 bytes

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is polling or push better?

Push scales far better because it removes the request traffic and only reports changes. Polling is simpler and gives a known worst-case load, which is why it persists.

What limits the collector rather than the network?

Requests per second and the per-poll processing cost. Thousands of polls per second usually exhaust the collector's connection handling long before bandwidth becomes an issue.