NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: bandwidth caps
On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 8:11 AM, Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com> wrote:
>
> [ The situation where peering is relatively inexpensive yet
> bandwidth caps are suddenly being explored is particularly
> interesting, since given sufficient local capacity it tends to
> suggest protectionist, potentially anticompetitive attempts
> to boost locally generated content vis-a-vis outside Internet
> competition.
>
> Where peering is expensive the situation can be viewed as
> different, though the question of whether that pricing is an
> organic function or artificial is of course relevant.
>
> -- Lauren Weinstein
> NNSquad Moderator ]
Please note you can also have situations like DOCSIS (cable modems)
where uplink bandwidth represents a shared resource, especially DOCSIS
1.1 and 2.
In terms of causing congestion and disruption to customer's traffic, a
heavy uploader on a cable modem can be MORE disruptive than a heavy
downloader.
Thus for cable-modem networks, it can be actually "cheaper" (in terms
of both congestion caused and the cost to releave congestion) to get
traffic from outside the ISP than it is to get it from your neigbor in
a P2P network!
[ True, though as DOCSIS 3.0 comes online, there's going to
be a lot more upstream bandwidth available at that level,
and as we've seen in recent reports even where P2P is
present (and P2P is decreasing in its relative share) congestion
problems appear to be significantly reduced as this occurs.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ]