Network bandwidth planning
With modern switched Ethernet networks, bandwidth is rarely a factor when planning PaperCut NG/MF deployments. The bandwidth consumed by PaperCut NG/MF is usually dwarfed by the print document data - e.g. the Postscript spool data sent across the network. Bandwidth does, however, become a consideration when planning deployments crossing physical site boundaries such as networks linked via a WAN.
PaperCut NG/MF uses an XML based web servicesWeb services are a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. protocol for communication between client-to-server and server-to-server. This protocol is very bandwidth efficient and designed to work well on low bandwidth and high latency networks.
Bandwidth estimates
Bandwidth consumption can be summarized as follows:
Server-to-server
Other than normal print serverA print server is a system responsible for hosting print queues and sharing printer resources to desktops. Users submit print jobs to a print server rather then directly to the printer itself. A print server can be a dedicated server but on many networks this server also performs other tasks, such as file serving traffic (standard job spooling), PaperCut NG/MF generates XML-RPC based Web Services based traffic on port 9191. Connections are made from the print server to the main PaperCut NG/MF Application ServerAn Application Server is the primary server program responsible for providing the PaperCut user interface, storing data, and providing services to users. PaperCut uses the Application Server to manage user and account information, manage printers, calculate print costs, provide a web browser interface to administrators and end users, and much more. (primary server). Normal activity is around 1-2kb of traffic for each print job. Connections are instigated from the secondary serverA PaperCut secondary server is a system that directly hosts a printer, that is, a print server with a Print Provider installed. A secondary server can be a server style system hosting many printers, a desktop style system hosting printer(s) also shared to other network users, or a desktop style system with the printer used only for local users (not shared).. Network packets are only sent during printing activity.
Client-to-server
Connections are instigated by the client inbound to the server on port 9191 and 9192 (Encrypted SSLSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. The protocol uses a third party, a Certificate Authority (CA), to identify one end or both end of the transactions. To be able to create an SSL connection a web server requires an SSL certificate. When you choose to activate SSL on your web server you will be prompted to complete a number of questions about the identity of your website and your company. Your web server then creates two cryptographic keys - a Private Key and a Public Key.). While at idle, the client consumes a few bytes once every minute (a keep-alive heartbeat). During print activity, up to 1-2kb per print job can be consumed depending on client popup settings.
If using account selection popups, the client must download the latest account list from the server whenever it is updated. The accounts are downloaded in a very efficient compressed format (approximately 20 bytes per account). If you have 10's of thousands of accounts, and many clients running on remote sites with limited bandwidth, see Manage large client billing databases.