performance - How can I calculate internet speed?

Question

I want to calculate internet speed in embedded device. In my researches on the internet, I saw that in order to measure internet speed, I had to download data from a server and calculate according to the download time. But this creates a lot of data usage and tires the device. Are there any other methods I can use other than that?

If there is no other way, What is the optimal data size to download from server?

Thank you.

Answer 1

I think it's the only possible way to test data transfer, at least correctly. Simple ideas that can be used as speedtest:

• Load image(s), check when it's fully loaded and calculate time difference divided by image size.
• Make GET request which responds to you with desired chunk of data and on response calculate difference divided by response size.
• Create POST request and send randomly generated data in it and on response calculate difference divided by image size.
• Create websocket and send ping->pong messages. (Websocket used instead of HTTP request because of its lower latency and stability)

You should also take a look that in all of those tests data compression and caching should be disabled and that they may be affected by ping.