Understand Teams network requirements
To optimize your organizational network, you must first understand Teams network requirements. This unit explains those requirements.
Understand Microsoft 365 URLs and IP address ranges
One of the first steps in optimizing network performance is to make sure all required endpoints in Microsoft 365 are accessible from the user’s client devices. If a client isn't able to connect to all required endpoints, depending on which service is inaccessible, users might see errors of features not working. For example, if SharePoint Online isn't accessible, users have problems accessing files in Teams as well. Make sure that all the required Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges are accessible for your users, regardless if they connect from a company network or from their home network. You can find a link to the full list of URLs and IP addresses in the Resources section.
If a company is using proxy servers, Microsoft recommends bypassing these proxies for Microsoft Teams. Teams traffic is always encrypted, and proxies can introduce network performance issues.
If you're required to use a proxy because your organization mandates it, be sure to monitor for network performance issues, particularly latency and packet loss, as these can indicate low-performing proxies.
Microsoft strongly recommends the following are configured if you must use a proxy:
Using external DNS resolution
Using direct UDP-based routing
Allow UDP traffic
Understanding audio and video impact on the network
Microsoft Teams has the normal basic network requirements of internet connectivity and DNS, but the most important network requirements are for audio and video or the calling and meeting workloads.
Teams’ codecs do their best to optimize the user experience for the bandwidth available. When more bandwidth is available, quality and usage increase to deliver the best experience. Teams can reach up to 4 MB/s per client if the bandwidth is available.
Microsoft offers the following guidelines for bandwidth requirements for Teams, breaking it down into minimum, recommended, and best performance:
Minimum experience Bandwidth requirements for video calls are up to 240p resolution, screen sharing content frame rates adaptive 1.875 fps to 7.5 fps, and Together Mode/Large Gallery video up to 540p resolution.
Recommended experience Bandwidth requirements for video calls are up to 1080p resolution, screen sharing content frame rates adaptive 7.5 fps to 30 fps, and Together Mode/Large Gallery video up to 1080p resolution.
Best Performance experience Guidance allows higher fidelity video for larger attendee meetings, high loss environments, and higher motion content with screen sharing content frame rates adaptive 15 fps to 30 fps.
The following table describes the minimum, recommended, and best bandwidth per user required for using Teams in different calling situations:
| Modality | Minimum Up | Minimum Down | Recommended Up | Recommended Down | Best Performance Up | Best Performance Down |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | ||||||
| One-to-one | 10 | 10 | 58 | 58 | 76 | 76 |
| Meetings | 10 | 10 | 58 | 58 | 76 | 76 |
| Video | ||||||
| One-to-one | 150 | 150 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Meetings | 150 | 200 | 2,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Screen sharing | ||||||
| One-to-one | 200 | 200 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Meetings | 250 | 250 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Together Mode (Meetings Only) | 1,000 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 4,000 |
Network performance requirements for audio and video
In addition to raw bandwidth or throughput, Teams needs a stable and performant connection. Performance is measurement of:
Latency: the time it takes for packets to get from A to B.
Packet loss: the number of packets that don't reach their destination at all.
Jitter: packets that arrive at their destination in the wrong order.
Even if you have a high bandwidth (throughput), bad latency and packet loss result in a degraded experience when using real-time communications like calling and meetings via Teams.
UDP connectivity for media is highly recommended as it's a connectionless protocol and has a lower transmission overhead. TCP is supported, and Teams falls back to TCP if UDP is unavailable, but using TCP negatively impacts performance.
Microsoft gives two sets of minimum network performance targets for optimal performance: the minimum requirements from a client or endpoint to the Microsoft networks and from the user’s network to the edge of the Microsoft networks.
This separation into two target requirements allows you to separately test, analyze, and optimize the organizational network edge first and then any issues with your network before the network edge.
Network performance requirements from your network edge to Microsoft network edge
The following table shows the metrics exclude any LAN/WAN or Wi-Fi and just measure from your corporate network edge to Microsoft via your ISP:
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Latency (one way) | <30 ms |
| Latency (RTT or Round-trip Time) | <60 ms |
| Burst packet loss | <1% during any 200-ms interval |
| Packet loss | <0.1% during any 15-s interval |
| Packet inter-arrival Jitter | <15 ms during any 15-s interval |
| Packet reorder | <0.01% out-of-order packets |
You can use the Microsoft Teams Network Assessment Tool on a machine or VM on the edge of your network to test if your internet connectivity meets these requirements.
Network performance requirements from a client to Microsoft network edge
The following table is the complete path from the client to Microsoft, including any Wi-Fi and LAN/WAN and internet connection:
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Latency (one way) | <50 ms |
| Latency (RTT or Round-trip Time) | <100 ms |
| Burst packet loss | <10% during any 200-ms interval |
| Packet loss | <1% during any 15-s interval |
| Packet inter-arrival Jitter | <30 ms during any 15-s interval |
| Packet reorder | <0.05% out-of-order packets |
From these tables, you can see how critical it is that your network be optimized for Teams media.