Implementation Success Tools: Network Bandwidth and Reliability. 1 Overview What DR Systems Will Do Prior to Installation...

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1 TechNote Implementation Success Tools: Network Bandwidth and Reliability For: Overview: For Release: System Administrators Use this document as a guide to requirements for network bandwidth and reliability. Release 8 and later Updated: July 9, 2008 Contents 1 Overview What DR Systems Will Do Prior to Installation What DR Systems Will Do at the Time of Installation Web-Connected Home Stations VPN over the Internet can impact network bandwidth... 3 Appendix A Minimum required bandwidth... 4 Appendix B Getting Help and Information Overview Many critical components contribute to the success of your RIS/PACS system from DR Systems. Your team members Your implementation team ranges from IT personnel, PACS administrators, department managers, radiologists, technologists, and transcriptionists. Everyone on the team plays a vital role. DR Systems team members Your RIS/PACS project is led and implemented on the DR Systems side by your Project Manager, your Sales Manager, and the entire team of application specialists and installation engineers. Each of these individuals that you meet is backed by every employee at DR Systems with the same goal: to help you efficiently implement your RIS/PACS in order to Enhance your Clinical and Financial Success. Page 1 of 5

2 Why network bandwidth and reliability is critical This document discusses network bandwidth and reliability. After all, the product technology and workflow re-engineering that your project will involve, access to high quality and fast bandwidth is one of the most critical factors in the success of your project. As a result of our experience in hundreds of customer installations, we have developed the following guidelines and procedures to help all of us be successful. 2 What DR Systems Will Do Prior to Installation Your Sales Manager has already reviewed with you the critical requirements for network bandwidth as part of the RIS/PACS sales process, and explained the minimum recommendations. Your Project Manager will also reiterate these points and review your LAN/WAN infrastructure conceptually to determine the current or planned networking interconnections between the PACS equipment, DICOM devices, and servers both within your LAN and across your WAN (if applicable). Your current and future planned network upgrades will be documented and tracked along the life of your project. All network upgrades must be completed and your network must meet minimum bandwidth requirements prior to your DR Systems equipment installation. Contacting Other Vendors You are responsible to contract with your outside telecommunication providers and vendors to provide the agreed upon bandwidth, and to ensure that the network services are installed, tested, and ready prior to the start of the DR RIS/PACS installation. 3 What DR Systems Will Do at the Time of Installation Following the initial installation of the RIS/PACS components into your network, our installation team will perform testing of the network connection for each RIS/PACS station. Copy Test ("cptst") Testing Tool This testing will consist of running a tool called "cptst" that we have developed and used for many years at many customer installations. This tool primarily copies files of known sizes to and from each PACS workstation and the primary PACS server multiple times, and compares the results of each file transfer. It has proven to be very successful at detecting insufficient bandwidth, port duplex and speed mismatches, faulty switch ports, misconfigured routers, cabling defects, and bad NICs. Obviously a bad NIC detected on a DR-provided machine will be replaced. Any one of these problems is relatively rare, but every one of them has been detected at one time using this test procedure. Note: Our tool is not a strict line test tool. It will not detect maximum theoretical throughput, but typical usable throughput. It includes actual file I/O processing at the server and workstation. You or your network experts may have additional testing you will want to perform. From our experience, our own test is the most effective at determining the capability of your network to support the large amounts of data that need to be delivered for successful RIS/PACS implementations. Page 2 of 5

3 Examples of Typical cptst Results Network Connection Theoretical Speed Typical DR Cptst Results Gigabit 1.0 Gigabits/second Megabits/second 100 Mbps LAN 100 Megabits/second Megabits/second DS3 45 Megabits/second Megabits/second Bonded T1 WAN 3.0 Megabits/second Megabits/second T1 WAN 1.5 Megabit/second Megabits/second Except for Web-Connected stations, the speed of uploads and downloads over your network link should be largely symmetrical, though a 10% difference in download vs. upload speeds is acceptable. A significant difference in upload (copying to the server) and download (copying from the server) definitely indicates a network problem (e.g. duplex mismatch) that must be addressed. If the values measured by the DR Installation Team fall below our expected typical values listed above, or if any network errors are measured by cptst, your project leader and the DR Project Manager will be notified immediately. We will provide our test results to you and your networking team. Resolving Results It is critical that these network results be improved and resolved prior to the start of applications training and your project s Go Live. Either the onsite Lead Installation Engineer or the DR Project Manager can, in the worst case, call a halt to the installation until the network tests achieve at least our minimum typical speeds. 4 Web-Connected Home Stations Our cptst utility does not operate over a typical Internet connection. Therefore for web-connected stations (e.g. Web Dominators and Web Transcription stations at home), your home users will be required to run one or two different bandwidth tests to ensure that they have sufficient connection speed and quality to the Internet, and that your Communicator server is also connected at sufficient speed to the Internet to sustain the important work they will be performing from their home offices. These bandwidth tests can be accessed from the Communicator home page. 5 VPN over the Internet can impact network bandwidth Some customers will find that a point-to-point or otherwise private WAN connection is impractical, and will establish a public Internet connection between two of their sites. Because HIPAA requires that patient information be encrypted over any public network, another option is a customer-provided VPN (Virtual Private Network) over the Internet. A VPN over the Internet can be an acceptable approach, but we have found that some VPN implementations can negatively impact usable network bandwidth. Sometimes this can be minimized by careful tuning of the VPN implementation, but a good rule of thumb is that for typical WAN-speed scenarios, a VPN over public network implementation will be slower and may be less reliable than the same speed private connection. Page 3 of 5

4 Appendix A Minimum required bandwidth Minimum required bandwidth for various DR Systems applications and scenarios: Type Description Theoretical Measured Standard LAN-based RIS/PACS Site 100 Mbps 40 Mbps Unified Database Architecture (UDA) Repository Site WAN Dominator Web Dominator Web Transcription Site Internet connection This is a site with a local repository server connected over a WAN to a central database and archive. The WAN Dominator is a Dominator used in specific instances to allow remote reading over a T1. It s use has generally been eclipsed by the Web Dominator. 500 Kbps upload and download is the minimum required bandwidth. At speeds less than 500 Kbps image download, image/report upload, and reporting grid update rates will be unacceptable to radiologists. 500 Kbps upload and download is the minimum required bandwidth. At speeds less than 500 Kbps dictation audio download, report upload, and reporting grid update rates will be unacceptable to transcriptionists. For servicing Web Dominators, Web Transcription, and Web Ambassador clients. These recommended minimums may need to be increased depending on the number of web-clients to be serviced simultaneously, and other applications using Internet bandwidth. 3 Mbps Mbps Mbps 500 Kbps 500 Kbps 500 Kbps 500 Kbps 1.5 Mbps Mbps All of these required minimums are just that minimum required bandwidths. While DR Systems applications include technology to utilize available bandwidth both in foreground and background operations: In all cases, higher speeds yield higher end-user satisfaction and productivity. For example, a radiologist working from home on a cable modem connection with 3 Mbps download/500 Kbps upload will always be more productive and satisfied than with a 500 kbps download/500 kbps upload connection. Page 4 of 5

5 Appendix B Getting Help and Information Displaying Online Help Display a comprehensive Help program: Press F1 or click Help Topics from the Help menu. Contacting DR Systems Customer Support Phone: Fax: drsupport@dominator.com Online: Click Customer Support Login Accessing the Resource Center View and download white papers, user guides, TechNotes, technical specifications and other documents: Go to Click the Resource Center button. Copyright and Notice Copyright DR Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Products and equipment by DR Systems described herein are manufactured under one or more patents, including U.S. Patent Number 5,452,416 and other patents pending Specifications are subject to change without notice. Ambassador, Catapult, CD Ambassador, Communicator, DICOM Guardian, Disk Array Guardian, Document Scanning, Dominator, DR Mammography Reporting and Tracking, DR Scheduler, DR Systems, Film Tracking, Guardian, Image Shuffling, Instant Reporter, Management Reports, Media Ambassador, Messenger, Multiprocessor Communicator, Network Media Ambassador, Patient Link, Patient Tracking, Pixel Tracking, Report Manager, Sentinel, SmartForms, Smart Shuffling, Unity RIS/PACS, Universal Manager, Web Ambassador, Web Dominator, and Web Transcription are trademarks of DR Systems, Inc., San Diego, CA. Template: MKT D Other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. All data and information contained in or disclosed by this document are confidential and proprietary information of DR Systems, Inc. All rights therein are expressly reserved. By accepting this material, the recipient agrees that this material and the information contained therein will be held in confidence and in trust by the recipient, and will not be used, copied, or otherwise reproduced in whole or in part, nor its contents revealed in any manner to others, without the express written consent of DR Systems, Inc. Page 5 of 5