HI, I need a good advice on this topic. I am using a basic DSL conenction and is now planning to upgrade my plan inorder to play online games on Xbox one. What is the minimum required bandwidth for good latency for better online gaming experience using Xbox gaming consoles?
The bandwidth requirements for actually playing a game are minimal. Any DSL package should be more than enough. Less than 1 mbit/sec for sure. The main consideration is the connection type for the DSL. There are “interleaved” connections and “fastpath” connections. Interleaved connections offer more bandwidth and better reliability, but greatly increase the minimum latency. For the best experience, you will want a fastpath connection.
The interleaved vs fastpath distinction is going to be lost on the customer service person. You basically need to figure it out with a higher tier technician (such as the installer) who can alter your profile. You may have an excellent line condition and they just give you fastpath or you may need to run at a lower speed than you pay for. It is random. All VDSL2 connections (generally 50+ mbit) are fastpath. Cable connections (aka DOCSIS) do not have this distinction and are basically all slightly higher latency than fastpath. Fibre-to-the-home is the lowest latency of them all.
You may want to get a faster connection than what is required for online gaming if you are going to be downloading digitally distributed games. For example, GTA5 was 60 GB when I got it. On a low-end 5 mbit/sec aDSL package, that would take like 30 hours.
Also, is your Xbox connected via WiFi or an ethernet cable? If you are in an apartment building, WiFi can really suffer due to interference from other units.
The layout of our apartment has the microwave between our Wi-Fi and the PS4 we use for streaming (and occasional gaming). We don’t game online all that often, and when we do it’s usually on the desktop (which uses CAT-5 connected to the router), but it’s always fun when you’re streaming something and the Wi-Fi kicks out because you’re reheating something in the microwave.
Yeah; If you’re playing a game with anything resembling twitch reflexes, you’ll want to avoid a wireless connection if possible. The bandwidth is fine, but the latency is a problem.
Thank you for a detailed explanation, Unfortunately, I am not that much technical person related to networking to understand this completely.
I can use both connections(LAN and wifi), Here we only have few occupants and a minimum interference chance.
https://www.acanac.com/internet-quebec/, I am using the 10/1 Mbps connection. Please suggest me a higher plan suitable for the gaming.
Can we measure the latency of existing connection by ourself or do we need to contact customer support for that ?
It does not work that way. A 10/1 profile from a Bell reseller is going to be more than enough bandwidth. (Though a 1 mbit/sec upstream connection will probably lag badly if you like to broadcast your Xbox to twitch.tv while playing.)
Unless you want to upgrade to the 50/10 profile, it really comes down to interleaved vs fastpath. That 50/10 profile is Bell’s vDSL2 profile and that is always fastpath. It is the profile that I use through another Bell reseller in Ontario.
Here is the best test right now.
Open a Command Prompt or Terminal window and type:
ping 104.160.131.1
This will check your latency to a random east coast League of Legends server that I looked up on google that responds to ping requests. Here is me:
Pinging 104.160.131.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 104.160.131.1: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=60
Reply from 104.160.131.1: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=60
Reply from 104.160.131.1: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=60
Reply from 104.160.131.1: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=60
Ping statistics for 104.160.131.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 20ms, Maximum = 20ms, Average = 20ms
If you are under 40ms for time, then you are likely also on a fastpath profile. Maybe a bit longer than 40ms if you are in Matane. If you see 50ms - 80ms, then it is interleaved. Since interleaved uses two pulses to transmit one piece of data through the internet, it doubles the ping time.
This method has issues. Such as you may have some issue that is resulting in latency that isn’t related to your DSL profile. It is the easiest non-technical way to do it though.
Many games will have a built-in feature to measure your lag, as well. Though how you turn that on will vary from game to game.