throughputs

Throughput is the rate at which a system produces output over time. It is usually expressed as units per time, such as items per hour in manufacturing, bits per second in networks, or transactions per second in software. Throughput represents realized performance and is distinct from capacity or bandwidth, which indicate potential maximums. Real throughput is affected by overhead, contention, and variability in processing times.

In manufacturing, throughput measures completed items that exit the process after rejects and rework. Factors affecting manufacturing throughput include cycle time, downtime, yields, and inventory constraints. In communications networks, throughput refers to useful data delivered over a link per second, excluding protocol overhead. It is influenced by bandwidth, error rates, congestion, latency, and retransmissions. In computing, throughput is often requests per second or data processed per second; it is affected by algorithmic efficiency, I/O latency, caching, parallelism, and contention.

Throughput is calculated as total successful output divided by the observation interval. Throughput efficiency compares achieved throughput to the theoretical maximum. In networks, throughput is estimated by data transferred over time, accounting for retransmissions and overhead.

Optimization and design: Increasing throughput often requires reducing bottlenecks, improving parallelism, and streamlining workflows. Techniques include pipelining, caching, load balancing, resource provisioning, and scheduling improvements. Ongoing measurement and capacity planning help avoid overprovisioning and maintain service levels.