RemoteFX Optimization

The key features of RemoteFX for WAN are as follows:

• Automatic network detection to adapt to initial and changing network conditions
• A UDP transport optimized for networks with packet loss and with an option to provide best-effort delivery for multimedia content
• Forward error correction (FEC) to recover from losses without retransmissions
• Fallback to TCP transport when UDP is not available
• Industry standard security and congestion control protocols

For handling packet loss enable UDP transport using Group Policy under Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Connections

• Select RDP transport protocols - Use either UDP or TCP (meaning - use UDP with fallback to TCP)

RemoteFX data compression Microsoft RemoteFX compression can be configured by using Group Policy under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment > Configure compression for RemoteFX data.

Three values are possible:

• Optimized to use less memory
• Consumes the least amount of memory per session but has the lowest compression ratio and therefore the highest bandwidth consumption.
• Balances memory and network bandwidth Reduced bandwidth consumption while marginally increasing memory consumption (approximately 200 KB per session).

Optimized to use less network bandwidth further reduces network bandwidth usage at a cost of approximately 2 MB per session. If you want to use this setting, you should assess the maximum number of sessions and test to that level with this setting before you place the server in production. You can also choose to not use a RemoteFX compression algorithm. Choosing to not use a RemoteFX compression algorithm will use more network bandwidth, and it is only recommended if you are using a hardware device that is designed to optimize network traffic.

Source:

• Page 121-141 Performance Tuning for Windows Server 2012 R2 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=397832
• RemoteFX for WAN: Overview of Intelligent and Adaptive Transports in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/08/23/remotefx-for-wan-overview-of-intelligent-and-adaptive-transports-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx