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CityFibre Ethernet Flex: How Committed and Burst Bandwidth Work
CityFibre Ethernet Flex is a business Ethernet option built around committed capacity with additional burst bandwidth. Its purpose is different from choosing a residential full-fibre speed tier: the important questions are what capacity is committed, what extra capacity may be used and which service terms apply.
Committed capacity and burst capacity
The committed information rate, or CIR, is the bandwidth commitment defined in the service. The peak information rate, or PIR, is the upper rate permitted by the product. Extra burst capacity should not be treated as though the entire peak rate were committed at all times. Confirm both figures and the conditions attached to them in the quote.
CityFibre describes its Ethernet 1000 Flex product as Ethernet with burstable bandwidth. Product availability and the retail service specification need to be checked for the individual business address.
Which workloads might suit a flexible service?
A business with a steady baseline of traffic and occasional large transfers may find a flexible bandwidth model useful. Examples include scheduled backups, distribution of large design files or periodic movement of data between locations. The business should measure its normal and peak demand before selecting the committed rate.
If an application needs a sustained level of capacity, size the commitment for that requirement. Do not base a critical workload on an assumption that optional burst headroom will always be available.
How is Flex different from a leased-line introduction?
Our CityFibre leased-line guide explains dedicated business connectivity and how it differs from broadband. This article focuses specifically on the bandwidth model of Ethernet Flex and the questions it raises for a service quote.
What to ask before ordering
Bandwidth: ask for the committed and peak rates in both directions, how traffic is handled above the commitment and whether any limits or conditions apply.
Service scope: confirm whether the quote includes internet access, the handoff equipment and managed routing, or is for a connectivity component within a wider network design.
Support and SLA: review support hours, fault reporting, repair targets, availability measurements, exclusions and service credits in the actual contract. A target is not a guarantee that no outage can occur.
Delivery: ask about survey requirements, building access, permissions, construction costs and the point at which an installation date can be confirmed.
Plan resilience separately
Burst capacity and resilience solve different problems. More bandwidth does not protect against a damaged cable, power loss or equipment failure. Where downtime has a material cost, discuss a backup connection and whether its physical route and dependencies are sufficiently separate.
Discuss the requirement with Exascale
Bring your site address, expected traffic profile, critical applications and resilience requirements to the discussion. Exascale can assess the available options and provide a service-specific quotation. For the network operator’s product overview, see CityFibre Ethernet services.