Re: P2P responsible for as much as 90 percent of all 'Net traffic

[David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Bob Frankston" <bob37-2 () bobf frankston com>
Date: September 5, 2007 11:46:53 AM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>, <ip () v2 listbox com>
Cc: "'Dewayne Hendricks'" <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: RE: [IP] P2P responsible for as much as 90 percent of all  
'Net traffic

Remember that these measures are dependent upon where you put your  
meters. How much of the traffic is within local networks including  
homes. What about the video broadcast on broadband – those bits wind  
up in the bit bucket but can occupy 99% of the capacity of those  
pipes. As to the 90% P2P number -- that's percentage of the pipes as  
currently lit which is not the same as 90% of the total capacity  
though it may indeed represent a major portion of the capacity of  
constrictions like transoceanic cables.

Of course there is also the use of P2P to mean piracy when protocols  
like Bit Torrent make a lot more sense than using TCP to transfer  
data for corporate and application.

As usual we need to understand the questions and the reason for  
asking them as much as the answers. Hmm – deep packet inspection – a  
way to get those nasty P2P bits off of the service provider’s  
networks – can’t have users deciding how to use those paths – it’s  
not as if communities have any rights to their own rights of way.

Power to DELIVERY CONTENT TO the people, AKA Power From The People,  
Bits To the People.

Of course these focus on video keeps our attention away from all the  
vital apps that broadband excludes in its emphasis on speed without  
control.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 04:36
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] P2P responsible for as much as 90 percent of all 'Net  
traffic



Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: September 4, 2007 10:22:08 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] P2P responsible for as much as 90 percent of
all 'Net traffic

P2P responsible for as much as 90 percent of all 'Net traffic
By Eric Bangeman | Published: September 03, 2007 - 09:00PM CT

<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070903-p2p-responsible-for-as-
much-as-90-percent-of-all-net-traffic.html>

P2P traffic is dominating the Internet these days, according to a new
survey from ipoque, a German traffic management and analysis firm.
ipoque's "preliminary results" show that P2P applications account
from anywhere between 50 percent and 90 percent of all Internet
traffic. The final survey results are not yet available and will
presented at the Emerging Technology Conference at MIT later this month.

Leading the way is BitTorrent, which has surpassed eDonkey as the P2P
protocol of choice. During the last year, BitTorrent accounted for
between 50 percent to 75 percent of all P2P traffic, with eDonkey
coming in second at between 5 percent and 50 percent. The wide
variance in the figures is due to local preference, according to
ipoque: in some parts of the world, eDonkey still reigns supreme when
it comes to P2P traffic.

When Skype went offline for a couple of days last month due to a
"perfect storm," the outcry was loud and furious. ipoque's data shows
why: Skype is responsible for as much as 2 percent of traffic in some
areas, despite the fact that it is not terribly bandwidth-intensive.

ipoque's data appears at odds with that of Ellacoya Networks, a
company that makes deep packet inspection gear. The company said in
June that P2P traffic accounts for just 37 percent of North American
traffic, compared with 46 percent for HTTP traffic. Of that 46
percent, over a third consisted of streaming video, à la YouTube.

Despite the differences in how the traffic is broken out, ipoque and
Ellacoya's data both illustrate the degree to which users' desire for
video is affecting the Internet. It seems safe to assume that much of
the P2P traffic reported by both firms is video. Combine that with
the surge in traffic to YouTube and other video sites, as well as the
official upcoming launch of Joost, and it paints a picture that some
ISPs will find disturbing: demand for high-bandwidth applications
like video is increasing. That's why ISPs are so interested in deep
packet inspection and other traffic-shaping tools.



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