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more on P2P Fuels Global Bandwidth Binge
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:32:26 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org> Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 15:36:22 -0600 To: <dave () farber net>, ip <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] P2P Fuels Global Bandwidth Binge At 08:43 AM 4/15/2005, Mike Godwin wrote:
I think it remains appropriate to be skeptical about CacheLogic's claims that BitTorrrent or other P2P applications are taking up 60-80 percent of all Internet bandwidth.
Dave: It always pays to be skeptical of statistics, especially those profferred in an attempt to sell products. However, it's also important to note that Mr. Godwin's skepticism is itself self-serving, coming as it does from a long time advocate of P2P. In this particular case, the statistics actually do jibe with what most ISPs report. Here are some more statistics from our own ISP, which -- like all others -- is caught in the middle between eager customers (who would quit if we cut off their P2P connections), the record companies (who, we fear, will attempt to use us as a bulwark or as scapegoats in their battle against P2P), and bandwidth costs (which are coming down, but not nearly rapidly enough). While we are located in a college town, only about 1/3 of our clients are college students. (This is because the University provides them with subsidized Internet access if they live off campus, or practically free access -- via the government-funded Internet2 no less -- if they live in the dormitories.) Yet, about 2/3 of our traffic is demonstrably P2P: Kazaa, BitTorrent, etc. And this is a conservative estimate; it's only what our patterns detect. One student, without bandwidth restrictions, could easily soak up 10 Mbps of continuous backbone bandwidth, which in our location can cost as much as $6,000 per month wholesale. That's why we were among the first ISPs to implement P2P mitigation. Had we not done so, those users -- perhaps unwittingly, because many of them did not realize that they were transmitting as well as receiving illegal copies of music -- would have choked off those engaged in legitimate activities and we would have lost their business. Many P2P applications, upon discovering an unfettered fast "pipe," quickly make the computers on which they're running major hubs in the P2P network, consuming all the bandwidth they can. Also, of all of the P2P users we've queried about their activities over the years, we have found only two who are using P2P for legal downloads. In both cases, they are obtaining software which is licensed in such a way that it may be freely redistributed. All of the rest were downloading music and similar media. Thus, CacheLogic's claims seem to be substantially accurate, at least from our measurements. And we do face a great dilemma: we will lose our customers if we do not allow downloads and will not have sufficient bandwidth for customers' legitimate needs if we do not throttle P2P activity to a sane level. --Brett Glass ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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