Appendix D: FAQs283Ethernet and IP NetworkingDoes the Dominion KX II offer dual gigabit Ethernet ports to provideredundant fail-over?Yes. The Dominion KX II features dual gigabit Ethernet ports to provideredundant failover capabilities. Should the primary Ethernet port (or theswitch/router to which it is connected) fail, the Dominion KX II will failoverto the secondary network port with the same IP address, ensuring thatserver operations are not disrupted. Note that automatic failover must beenabled by the administrator.How is bandwidth used in KVM-over-IP systems?The Dominion KX II offers next generation KVM-over-IP technology – thevery best video compression available. Raritan has received numeroustechnical awards confirming its high video quality transmissions and thelow bandwidth utilization.The Dominion KX II digitizes, compresses and encrypts the keyboard,video, and mouse signals from the target server and transmits IP packetsover the IP network to the remote client to create the remote session tothe user. The Dominion KX II provides an at-the-rack experience basedon its industry leading video processing algorithms.Screen changes, such as video, accounts for the majority of thebandwidth used – keyboard and mouse activity is significantly less.It is important to note that bandwidth is only used when the user isactive. The amount of bandwidth used is based on the amount ofchange to the server’s video display screen.If there are no changes to the video – the user is not interacting with theserver – there is generally no bandwidth used. If the user moves themouse or types a character, then there is a small amount of bandwidthused. If the display is running a complex screen saver or playing avideo, then there can be a larger amount of bandwidth used.How does bandwidth affect KVM-over-IP performance?In general, there is a trade-off between bandwidth and performance.The more bandwidth available, the better performance can be. Inlimited bandwidth environments, performance can degrade. TheDominion KX II has been optimized to provide strong performance in awide variety of environments.What factors affect bandwidth?There are many factors that determine how much bandwidth will beused. The primary factor, as discussed previously, is the amount ofchange in the target server’s video display. This is dependent on theuser’s task and actions.
