20 Calculators Documented

Our Methodology

Transparency matters. Here's how we build our calculators and where our numbers come from.

Our Principles

Industry Standards First

We follow IEEE, IETF, and TIA/EIA standards wherever applicable. No proprietary formulas or guesswork.

Real-World Overhead

Theoretical maximums are misleading. We account for protocol overhead, environmental factors, and typical usage patterns.

Conservative Estimates

When in doubt, we err on the side of caution. Better to overspec slightly than underdeliver.

Cite Our Sources

Every calculator page includes references to the standards and research we used.

Calculator-Specific Notes

Subnet Calculator

Based on RFC 4632 (CIDR) and RFC 1918 (private address allocation). Calculations follow standard binary mathematics for IPv4 addressing.

RFC 4632 RFC 1918 RFC 950

PoE Budget Calculator

Uses IEEE 802.3af/at/bt power delivery specifications. Accounts for cable resistance and power loss over distance using standard copper resistance values.

IEEE 802.3af IEEE 802.3at IEEE 802.3bt

Bandwidth Planner

Activity bandwidth estimates based on published requirements from major service providers (Netflix, Zoom, Microsoft Teams) plus 20% headroom for overhead and bursting.

Netflix Help Center Zoom System Requirements Microsoft Teams Docs

WiFi Coverage Estimator

Based on free-space path loss calculations and typical indoor attenuation values. Wall penetration losses derived from empirical studies of common building materials.

IEEE 802.11 ITU-R P.1238

Cable Loss Calculator

Fiber attenuation based on ITU-T G.652 (single-mode) and ISO/IEC 11801 (multimode). Copper loss uses TIA-568 specifications for Cat5e/Cat6/Cat6a.

ITU-T G.652 ISO/IEC 11801 TIA-568

File Transfer Timer

Includes typical protocol overhead: TCP/IP headers (~3-5%), application layer overhead varies by protocol (SMB, FTP, rsync). Accounts for typical throughput efficiency (70-90% of line rate).

Empirical Studies RFC 793 (TCP)

Uptime Calculator

Standard availability percentage calculations. Downtime windows computed across different time periods (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly).

Industry SLA Standards

Latency Calculator

Based on speed of light in fiber (~0.67c) and copper (~0.64c). Includes typical equipment processing delays and accounts for geographic routing inefficiencies.

Physics Constants ITU-T G.114

MTU Calculator

Encapsulation overhead values from protocol specifications: GRE (24 bytes), IPsec ESP (50-57 bytes), VXLAN (50 bytes), WireGuard (60 bytes), PPPoE (8 bytes).

RFC 2784 (GRE) RFC 7348 (VXLAN) RFC 4303 (IPsec)

Throughput Calculator

Protocol overhead calculations: Ethernet frame (18-26 bytes), IP header (20 bytes), TCP header (20 bytes), UDP header (8 bytes). Efficiency varies by MTU size.

IEEE 802.3 RFC 791 (IP) RFC 793 (TCP)

VLAN Planner

Based on IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging standard. Broadcast domain sizing follows industry best practices of limiting to 250-500 devices per VLAN.

IEEE 802.1Q Network Design Best Practices

IP/CIDR Converter

Standard binary mathematics for IPv4. Conversions between dotted decimal, CIDR notation, binary, and hexadecimal representations.

RFC 4632 (CIDR) RFC 791 (IPv4)

CIDR Aggregator

Uses supernetting algorithms to combine contiguous address blocks. Implements optimal route aggregation following BGP best practices.

RFC 4632 BGP Best Practices

RAID Calculator

Standard RAID level calculations for capacity, fault tolerance, and efficiency. Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60 configurations.

SNIA RAID Specifications Industry Standards

Port Density Calculator

Accounts for uplink ports, management ports, and growth headroom. Based on common switch form factors (8, 12, 24, 48-port configurations).

Network Planning Guidelines

WiFi Channel Planner

2.4GHz uses non-overlapping channels 1, 6, 11 (North America). 5GHz channel selection based on UNII bands and DFS requirements per FCC regulations.

IEEE 802.11 FCC Part 15

DNS TTL Calculator

TTL recommendations based on record type and use case. Migration planning follows DNS best practices for minimizing propagation delays.

RFC 1035 (DNS) RFC 2181

MAC Address Tool

OUI database from IEEE MA-L registry. Supports all common MAC address formats: colon-separated, hyphen-separated, and Cisco dot notation.

IEEE 802 IEEE OUI Registry

Link Aggregation Calculator

Based on IEEE 802.3ad (LACP) and 802.1AX standards. Hash algorithm distribution estimates based on typical traffic patterns and flow distributions.

IEEE 802.3ad IEEE 802.1AX

Network Growth Planner

Compound growth calculations with industry-standard device-per-user ratios. Infrastructure thresholds based on enterprise network design guidelines.

Capacity Planning Models Enterprise Design Guides

Feedback & Corrections

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