User guide

Dominion KX II – Frequently Asked Questions
© 2012 Raritan Inc. Page 4 of 18 V1098 R6 May 2012
Do I always need to set a
USB profile when I use
virtual media?
No. In many cases, the default USB profile is sufficient when using virtual media
at the OS level or operating at the BIOS level without accessing virtual media.
What profiles are available?
Where can I find more
information?
Consult the user guide for the available profiles and for more information.
Bandwidth and KVM-over-IP Performance
How is bandwidth used in
KVM-over-IP systems?
Dominion KX II offers next-generation KVM-over-IP technology – the very best
video compression available. Raritan has received numerous technical awards,
confirming its high video quality transmissions and the low bandwidth utilization.
The Dominion KX II digitizes compresses and encrypts the keyboard, video and
mouse signals from the target server and transmits IP packets over the IP
network to the remote client to create the remote session to the user. The KX II
provides an at-the-rack experience based on its industry-leading video
processing algorithms.
Screen changes, i.e., video accounts for the majority of the bandwidth used –
and keyboard and mouse activity are significantly less.
It is important to note that bandwidth is only used when the user is active. The
amount of bandwidth used is based on the amount of change to the server’s
video display screen.
If there are no changes to the video – the user is not interacting with the server
– there is generally no bandwidth used. If the user moves the mouse or types a
character, then there is a small amount of bandwidth used. If the display is
running a complex screen saver or playing a video, then there can be a larger
amount of bandwidth used.
How does bandwidth affect
KVM-over-IP performance?
In general, there is a trade-off between bandwidth and performance. The more
bandwidth available, the better performance can be. In limited bandwidth
environments, performance can degrade. The Dominion KX II has been
optimized to provide strong performance in a wide variety of environments.
What factors affect
bandwidth?
There are many factors that determine how much bandwidth will be used. The
primary factor, noted above, is the amount of change in the target server’s video
display. This is dependent on the user’s task and actions.
Other factors include the server’s video resolution, networking speed and
characteristics, client PC resources and video card noise.
The Dominion KX II has very sophisticated video processing algorithms that
optimize bandwidth and performance for a variety of environments. In addition,
they are highly configurable; there are many settings to optimize bandwidth
usage. In particular, the connection speed setting in the remote clients (VKC,
MPC) can be set to reduce the bandwidth used.
Unlike the KX I, the noise filter parameter does not generally have a large role in
reducing bandwidth or improving performance of the Dominion KX II.