Re: Traffic ratio of an ISP

[Prasun Dey <prasun () nevada unr edu>]

Thank you Steller, 
Your response is extremely helpful. I really appreciate your detailed explanation. 
While I was looking for these numbers, I couldn’t find any. I thought, as an outsider, these numbers may not be 
accessible for me. And, as I don’t own an AS, so, I can’t be a member of PeeringDB! Instead I thought, why don’t I ask 
for your help directly to get a proper guidance. And, this discussion certainly helped me. Thank you again.
On a separate note, I’m happy that my mail drew your attention to update in the PeeringDB. Don’t know if it matters at 
all!

-
Prasun 

Regards,
Prasun Kanti Dey
Ph.D. Candidate,
Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Central Florida
web: https://prasunkantidey.github.io/portfolio/






> On Jun 19, 2019, at 5:30 PM, Steller, Anthony J <Anthony.Steller () charter com> wrote:
>
> Hi Prasun,
>  
> It was updated because ‘Balanced’ wasn’t accurate, we didn’t notice that’s what it said until you pointed it out, 
> because it really don’t matter in the whole scheme of things. In regards to:
>  
> > > So, my question was more like to understand when an ISP decides to claim itself as any of these (Heavy Outbound/ 
> > > Inbound or Balanced)? From an ISP’s own point of view, at what point, it says, my outbound:inbound is something, 
> > > so I’m Heavy Outbound. 
>  
> As a residential ISP, we are an eyeball network, we connect to the people using the content on the internet (of 
> course with commercial customers also who host content, but mainly residential). Because of the nature of the users 
> on our network, we are considered Heavy Inbound since most traffic will be going from content providers to users on 
> our network. It’s really as simple as that, we do no calculation to figure out our traffic ratio and update according 
> to some arbitrary ratio number, because none of that matters. That field in PeeringDB is used as additional 
> information for someone who may look at the ASN and try to determine what to expect in general if connecting to them.
>  
> TL;DR - There are no hard numbers to give you, it just depends how someone feels that day of the week when setting it.
>  
> Hope this helps.
>  
>  
> From: Prasun Dey [mailto:prasun () nevada unr edu] 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2019 4:08 PM
> To: Knopps, Brian; Peering
> Cc: Josh Luthman; nanog () nanog org
> Subject: Re: Traffic ratio of an ISP
>  
> Seems you just have updated today. Thanks for letting us know. 
> Last time, I checked was yesterday and based on that I mentioned your traffic ratio being ‘Balanced’. 
>  
> Regards,
> Prasun Kanti Dey
> Ph.D. Candidate,
> Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
> University of Central Florida
> web: https://prasunkantidey.github.io/portfolio/ <https://prasunkantidey.github.io/portfolio/>
>  
>  
>  
>  
>
>
>
> On Jun 19, 2019, at 4:57 PM, Knopps, Brian <Brian.Knopps () charter com <mailto:Brian.Knopps () charter com>> wrote:
>  
> <image001.png>
>  
> From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-bounces () nanog org <mailto:nanog-bounces () nanog org>] On Behalf Of Josh Luthman
> Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2019 3:24 PM
> To: Prasun Dey
> Cc: nanog () nanog org <mailto:nanog () nanog org>
> Subject: Re: Traffic ratio of an ISP
>  
> > my question was more like to understand when an ISP decides to claim itself as any of these (Heavy Outbound/ Inbound 
> > or Balanced)
>  
> Maybe I'm missing something but it's as simple as looking at the interface graphs.  We see a whole lot of green for 
> inbound and a little little blue line for outbound.  We are an ISP with residential and commercial customers.
>  
> Josh Luthman
> Office: 937-552-2340
> Direct: 937-552-2343
> 1100 Wayne St
> Suite 1337
> Troy, OH 45373
>  
>  
> On Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 4:20 PM Prasun Dey <prasun () nevada unr edu <mailto:prasun () nevada unr edu>> wrote:
> Hi Martijn and Josh,
> Thank you for your detailed explanation. Let me explain my requirement so that you may help me better.
> According to PeeringDB, Charter (Access), Sprint (Transit), Amazon (Content) all three of them are ‘Balanced’. While, 
> Cable One, an Access ISP says it is Heavy Inbound, while Akamai, Netflix (Content) are Heavy Outbound. On the other 
> hand,  Cox, another access ISP, it says that it is Mostly Inbound.
> So, my question was more like to understand when an ISP decides to claim itself as any of these (Heavy Outbound/ 
> Inbound or Balanced)? From an ISP’s own point of view, at what point, it says, my outbound:inbound is something, so 
> I’m Heavy Outbound. 
> Please ignore my lack of knowledge in this area. I’m sorry I should’ve done a better job in formulating my question 
> earlier.
> Thank you.
>  
> -
> Prasun
>  
> Regards,
> Prasun Kanti Dey
> Ph.D. Candidate,
> Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
> University of Central Florida
> web: https://prasunkantidey.github.io/portfolio/ <https://prasunkantidey.github.io/portfolio/>
>  
>  
>  
>  
>
>
>
>
> On Jun 19, 2019, at 2:13 PM, i3D.net <http://i3d.net/> - Martijn Schmidt <martijnschmidt () i3d net 
> <mailto:martijnschmidt () i3d net>> wrote:
>  
> It kinda depends on the application that's being used. For example, videogaming has a ratio somewhere around 1:2.5 
> since you're only transmitting metadata about the players environment across the wire. The actual video is typically 
> rendered at the end user's side. So it's not very bandwidth heavy. 
>
> Compare that with a videostream (watching a movie or TV series) and you're pumping the rendered video across the 
> wire, so there's a very different ratio. Your return path traffic would pretty much consist of control stuff only 
> (like pushing the pause button).
>
> Some networks are dedicated to serving one type of content, whereas others might have a blend of different kinds of 
> content. Same story for an access network geared to business users which want to use emails and such, vs residential 
> end users looking for the evening's entertainment.
>
> Best regards,
> Martijn 
>
> On 19 June 2019 19:54:45 CEST, Josh Luthman <josh () imaginenetworksllc com <mailto:josh () imaginenetworksllc com>> 
> wrote:
> If you're asking an ISP, consumers will always be inbound.  It's the end user.  The outbound would be where the 
> information is coming from, like data centers.
>  
> I'm not sure you're going to get any better answer without a more specific question.
>  
> Josh Luthman
> Office: 937-552-2340
> Direct: 937-552-2343
> 1100 Wayne St
> Suite 1337
> Troy, OH 45373
>  
>  
> On Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 12:50 PM Prasun Dey <prasun () nevada unr edu <mailto:prasun () nevada unr edu>> wrote:
> Hello,
> Good morning.
> I’m a Ph.D. candidate from University of Central Florida. I have a query, I hope you can help me with it or at least 
> point me to the right direction.
> I’ve seen from PeeringDB that every ISP reveals its traffic ratio as Heavy/ Mostly Inbound or Balanced or Heavy/ 
> Mostly Outbound. 
> I’m wondering if there is any specific ratio numbers for them. In Norton’s Internet Peering Playbook or some other 
> literary work, they mention the outbound:inbound traffic ratio as 1:1.2 to up to 1:3 for Balanced. But, I couldn’t 
> find the other values.
> I’d really appreciate your help if you can please mention what Outbound:Inbound ratios that network admins use 
> frequently to represent their traffic ratios for 
> 1. Heavy Inbound:
> 2. Mostly Inbound:
> 3. Mostly Outbound:
> 4. Heavy Outbound:
>  
> Thank you.
> -
> Prasun
> -- 
> Sincerely,
> Prasun Kanti Dey,
> Ph.D. candidate,
> Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
> University of Central Florida.
>
> -- 
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. 
>  
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