Comcast opens up about how it manages traffic

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Patrick W. Gilmore [patrick () ianai net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 1:01 AM
To: David Farber; Henrik B
Cc: Patrick W. Gilmore
Subject: Re: [IP] Comcast opens up about how it manages traffic

Henrik,

Leaving all judgements of Comcast aside, I would like to comment one
thing you mention:

> My opinion is taht if Comcast sells me TCP/IP based Internet
> connectivity, then that is what they should give me. If they are
> overselling their capacity, which I'm certain that they are, then that
> should not be my problem, should it?

_EVERY_ network provider who sells you "TCP/IP based Internet
connectivity" is overselling their capacity.  There is no commercial
transit provider who could sustain the load of all their customers
bursting to max simultaneously.  As far as I know, there never has
been - at least not one that made money.

Or did you really think full transit went for $3.33/Mbps ($40/12 Mbps)?

--
TTFN,
patrick


On Apr 21, 2008, at 7:36 PM, David Farber wrote:

> ________________________________________
> From: Henrik B [blondino () gmail com]
> Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 5:27 PM
> To: David Farber
> Subject: Re: [IP] Comcast opens up about how it manages traffic
>
> Dear Dave,
>
> Maybe for IP if you think it's appropriate
>
> I find this whole discussion amusing and troubling at the same time.
> Comcast is continuously telling us through TV commercials that they
> give you 12 Mbit/s and brags about their PowerBoost that makes running
> to Peru and back a matter of fractions of a second. And then Mr
> Bowling defines an excessive usage as "the equvalent of two T-1
> lines". If I recall correctly a T-1 line has throughput of 1.544
> Mbit/s, which means that if you use 3 Mbit/s, or 25% of the capacity
> that Comcast says that you have, then you are an excessive user.
>
> My opinion is taht if Comcast sells me TCP/IP based Internet
> connectivity, then that is what they should give me. If they are
> overselling their capacity, which I'm certain that they are, then that
> should not be my problem, should it? If they have a problem defining
> the product they are selling, it's no wonder that they have a problem
> putting a price on it.
>
> In addition, I think USA Today journalists should check what a T-1
> line is, rather than just saying "big data lines used by large
> corporations."
>
> Henrik Brameus
>
> On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 8:28 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
> > ________________________________________
> > From: Bob Rosenberg [bob.redmountain () gmail com]
> > Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 5:18 AM
> > To: David Farber
> > Cc: Lauren Weinstein
> > Subject: USA TODAY: Comcast opens up about how it manages traffic
> >
> > Dave
> >
> > Perhaps for I.P.
> >
> > Bob Rosenberg
> >
> >
> >
> > Comcast opens up about how it manages traffic
> > By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
> > Managing online traffic can be risky stuff. Just ask Comcast.
> > http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2008-04-20-comcast-peer-to-peer_N.htm
> >
> > The cable TV giant came under fire recently when it slowed a "peer-
> > to-peer" transmission of the King James Bible sent as a test by an
> > Associated Press reporter.
> >
> > At two special hearings held by the Federal Communications
> > Commission — one at Harvard and another last week at Stanford — the
> > company was excoriated for delaying peer-to-peer traffic.
> >
> > Peer-to-peer transmissions, which account for more than half of all
> > Web traffic, enable computers to snatch music, data and video files
> > from other computers. To assemble one file, a peer-to-peer service
> > can tap into dozens, or even hundreds, of computers around the world.
> >
> > Comcast (CMCSA)<http://stocks.usatoday.com/custom/usatoday-com/html-quote.asp?symb=cmcsa
> > > , which has 13 million online customers, has been taking a low
> > profile. Executives Tony Werner, Comcast's chief technology
> > officer, and Mitch Bowling, senior vice president of online
> > service, agreed to discuss the incident with USA TODAY.
> >
> > According to Werner, the transmission slowdown occurred
> > automatically when network congestion started to build in the
> > Boston area, affecting other customers. The King James
> > transmission, which was small, didn't cause the slowdown, he says.
> >
> > Once traffic loads got too high, he says, Comcast's network
> > automatically took steps to avoid further degradation. The result:
> > Some peer-to-peer traffic, including the AP transmission, got
> > delayed. But it was never blocked, he says. The transmission
> > "showed up. It just took a little longer to get there."
> >
> > "The only reason you do something like that is to maintain
> > consistent network performance," Werner says.
> >
> > At the FCC hearings, Comcast was criticized for throttling back
> > peer-to-peer traffic as a network management technique.
> >
> > "The technique is not unique to Comcast," says Comcast's Bowling.
> >
> > FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says Comcast should be specific about its
> > bandwidth limitations. "Consumers have to be informed about what
> > they are buying," he says.
> >
> > Comcast service contracts say "excessive usage" is banned, but no
> > cutoff point is specified. Bowling says there's a good reason for
> > that: "There isn't a specific limit."
> >
> > Bowling says Comcast considers incidents case-by-case. Only a
> > handful of people fall into the "excessive user" category, he says.
> >
> > Pressed to say how much bandwidth consumption is too much, Bowling
> > offers this: People who use "the equivalent of two T-1 lines" — big
> > data lines used by large corporations.
> >
> > "I don't think anybody could look at that as typical residential
> > usage," he says.
> >
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>
>
> --
> "If you're right 98% of the time, why quibble about the remaining 3%?"
> MSN: hbrameus () hotmail com
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