nanog mailing list archives
Re: home network monitoring and shaping
From: Joel Maslak <jmaslak () antelope net>
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:46:50 -0700
I've had great luck with Cisco's fair-queue option (and similar techniques). Using RED, small queues (think on the order of 10-20 packets), and creating a choke point in and out of the network, I've implemented similar behavior on plenty of DSL lines on the CPE-side. My most successful was sharing one 7mbps line with 120 technical employees - before the implementation of improved queuing, web pages took 60 seconds or more to load during peak usage. After implementation, people didn't know they were on a shared DSL unless they tried streaming video (fortunately not a business requirement) or a bulk download (it worked fine, it just would be slow if there were several others going on at the same time). I suspect I could have even made a VoIP call across the line with a MOS in the high 3's easily. A second issue is poor wireless retransmission and buffering implementations in consumer wireless. For my home, to make VoIP work with low-end gear, I had to break most HTTP sessions and switch to a delay-based congestion control algorithm inside my network - due to the 5+ second buffers on the wifi gear. That would probably have been enough, but turning on WMM really took the rest of the pain out of wifi-VoIP. I don't know how to fix the home wifi problems (WMM helps with some applications, certainly, but it's not a full solution if you still have 5 second buffers in the default traffic class). But for the other problems, it would be nice if my provider didn't give me huge buffers and no RED on the output queue (I have no idea if they are doing the best they can with the gear they have or not, so there may not be any option here). But, even without that, home routers can do better than they do now. My router knows what speed it's connected at. It can create an internal bottleneck slightly slower, prioritize small packets, implement RED, and use reasonably-sized buffers (fast downloads should not increase ping times by hundreds of ms). I shouldn't need to hang a Linux box between it and my home network. Large buffers have broken the average home internet. I can't tell you how many people are astonished when I say "one of your family members downloading a huge Microsoft ISO image (via TCP or other congestion-aware algorithm) shouldn't even be noticed by another family member doing web browsing. If it is noticed, the network is broke. Even if it's at the end of a slow DSL line."
Current thread:
- home network monitoring and shaping Michael Thomas (Feb 12)
- RE: home network monitoring and shaping Warren Bailey (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Michael Thomas (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Eric Adler (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping James Harrison (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Joel Maslak (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Michael Thomas (Feb 13)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Sean Lazar (Feb 13)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Joel Maslak (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Roy (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping Lee (Feb 12)
- RE: home network monitoring and shaping Warren Bailey (Feb 12)
- Re: home network monitoring and shaping g () 1337 io (Feb 12)