Why do upload speeds require time to build up?

Question

When working on a remote server, I notice that when uploading small files (let's say 0.1 - 0.2 MB) I get significantly slower transfer rates than when uploading larger files (1MB +).

It seems like the larger the file, the more time the transfer has to build up speed to upload. I notice it starts slow & builds up speed almost like acceleration.

Why is it that this behavior is observed - and is there anything I can do to negate it?

Answer 1

it's not the speed, it's the way it's calculated.

Usually, as you initialise a transfer, the counter starts from right then, ignoring any negotiation time.

A tiny file spends most of its upload time in the initial negotiation, compared to the actual data transfer. With a larger file, this initial mis-calculation is gradually absorbed by the overall transfer time.

This even applies when you are actually negotiating multiple simultaneous transfers - [like wget etc which breaks transfers into multiple chunks & sends them simultaneously], as each chunk will wait for the one before it to initialise before starting; so even though in that case it is actually possible that the transfer did accelerate during the transfer, it is still skewed by the measuring system.