What do the three values mean on network monitoring tools

Question

Often in network monitoring tools there are three values for one measure.

Ex

rx: 2.0 kb/s 40 kb/s 10 kb/s

Are these similar to how cpu load works, they are taken at different length time spans. So one is every two seconds, then four seconds..

Thanks in advance.

One example program would be iftop.

Answer 1

Generally speaking, you can't asume the output of different tools have the same meaning. You have to RTM.

Specifically, these three columns in iftop are the average traffic during the last 2, 10 and 40 seconds.

Some similar output on another software could mean something else (like, minimum, average and maximum).

Answer 2

In iftop at least, these are the receive values at 2,10, and 40 second intervals. The tx row is the same for transmit. Different programs may have different intervals.