The one rule that clears up the confusion

Throughput never beats bandwidth.

The teal fill is your real, delivered throughput. It rises and falls with traffic, congestion and loss, but it can't cross the amber line. That line is the bandwidth ceiling. You paid for the ceiling. You live inside the fill.

Capacity of the link 100 Mbps ceiling
62 Mbps
bandwidth
unused capacity,
overhead & loss
Throughput is always bandwidth.
Viktor Vedmich · vedmich.dev
fill = throughput · line = bandwidth