nanog mailing list archives
Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?
From: Michael.Dillon () btradianz com
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 10:25:54 +0000
But what happens when 5% of the paying subscribers use 95% of the
existing
capacity, and then the other 95% of the subscribers complain about poor performance?
"Capacity" is too vague of a word here. If we assume that the P2P software can be made to recognize the ISP's architecture and prefer peers that are topologically nearby, then the issue focuses on the ISP's own internal capacity. It should not have a major impact on the ISP's upstream capacity which involves stuff that is rented from others (transit, peering). Also, because P2P traffic has its sources evenly distributed, it makes a case for cheap local BGP peering connections, again, to offload traffic from more expensive upstream transit/peering.
What is the real cost to the ISP needing to upgrade the network to handle the additional traffic being generated by 5% of the subscribers when there isn't "spare" capacity?
In the case of DSL/Cable providers, I suspect it is mostly in the Ethernet switches that tie the subscriber lines into the network.
The reason why many universities buy rate-shaping devices is dorm users don't restrain their application usage to only off-peak hours, which may
or may not be related to sleeping hours. If peer-to-peer applications restrained their network usage during periods of peak network usage so it didn't result in complaints from other users, it would probably have a better reputation.
I am suggesting that ISP folks should be cooperating with P2P software developers. Typically, the developers have a very vague understanding of how the network is structured and are essentially trying to reverse engineer network capabilities. It should not be too difficult to develop P2P clients that receive topology hints from their local ISPs. If this results in faster or more reliable/predictable downloads, then users will choose to use such a client.
The Internet is good for narrowcasting, but its still working on mass audience events.
Then, perhaps we should not even try to use the Internet for mass audience events. Is there something wrong with the current broadcast model? Did TV replace radio? Did radio replace newspapers? --Michael Dillon
Current thread:
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously?, (continued)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Petri Helenius (Jan 21)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Gian Constantine (Jan 21)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Leo Vegoda (Jan 09)
- What comes AFTER YouTube? Michael . Dillon (Jan 09)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Simon Lyall (Jan 08)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Keith (Jan 09)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Peter Dambier (Jan 09)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Michael . Dillon (Jan 09)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Sean Donelan (Jan 07)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Alexander Harrowell (Jan 08)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Michael . Dillon (Jan 08)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Mark Smith (Jan 08)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Marshall Eubanks (Jan 08)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Joe Abley (Jan 08)
- Re: Network end users to pull down 2 gigabytes a day, continuously? Douglas Otis (Jan 09)