Bandwidth-Delay Product

The Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP) is the maximum amount of data that can be in transit on a network link. It's calculated as:

BDP = Bandwidth × Round-Trip Time

This visualization shows how data packets (1 bit each) travel through a network link and how the BDP determines the maximum number of bits that can be "in flight" at any given time.

1 bps 5 bps 10 bps
0.5 s 2 s 10 s
Sender
Receiver
Time: 0.00 s

Round-Trip Time (RTT): 4.00 s

Bandwidth-Delay Product: 20 bits

Maximum bits in flight: 20

Bits sent: 0

Bits received: 0

Link utilization: 0%