[ NNSquad ] Re: Comcast network management filing with FCC (including throttling)

[Ben Kamen <bkamen@benjammin.net>]

Interesting to note:

> 12 The User Consumption Thresholds have been set sufficiently high that using the HSI connection for VoIP
> or most streaming video cannot alone cause subscribers to our standard-level HSI service to exceed the User
> Consumption Threshold. For example, while Comcast’s standard-level HSI service provisions downstream
> bandwidth at 6 Mbps, today, streaming video (even some HD video) from Hulu uses less than 2.5 Mbps, a Vonage
> or Skype VoIP call uses less than 131 Kbps, and streaming music uses less than 128 Kbps.

I would raise the question of:

How many households under your service have you confirmed to have more than 1 internet media capable device..

If the internet is truly becoming the new distro media for video, it's easy to see how 
the multiple people in the house could be watching a separate video stream and easily popping that 
6Mb/s threashold. It's dandy they provide some metrics but leave out the important info of how many devices in a house might be internet media enabled. 


I also like:

> To date, Comcast has yet to receive a single
> customer complaint in any of the trial markets that can be traced to the new congestion
> management practices, despite having broadly publicized its trials.

Knowing how I personally have called into companies to complain about something fairly wide-spread only to get the response of "we've never heard that before" when I myself called previously to complain about the very same things, I would suspect there is some amount of dishonesty with this statement.

I also would raise the question of, "will most of your customers REALLY notice that they're being throttled vs. just having a bad internet day?" Probably not. 


Regardless. I have been in the position of engineering and maintaining networks both in the past and currently. I do sympathize with admins who have only so much bandwidth and want it to be used responsibly. (One client of mine and I have just this year been chasing down abusers of the the network in his school district. It's understandable.)

I commend Comcast for stating that their intended design is going to be protocol agnostic. I hope it truly turns out that way. From the standpoint of being both a consumer and a weekend networking warrior, I feel their proposed implementation to be a good one. They don't need to look at my packets, just look at the raw throughput I present to the network. After all, I'm buying essentially a connection to the internet. Raw unadulterated bandwidth. That's what I want. If I worry about my VoIP calls, I should stop that 2+GB download of the latest Xilinx software OR properly configure my router so that *I* manage my bandwidth according to my needs. I realize that not everyone may be able to do this. But heck, if the US Gov can create the accouting consultants industry through the creation of the IRS and Microsoft can create the dozens of markets supporting their OS because they can't|won't, why can't Comcast help bolster the IT market the same way. (Ok, that was tongue in cheek)


Seriously though. If I could be in one of the engineering meetings, I would recommend their total usage metrics be revisited on a regular basis as their 250GB cap will need to change over time. The very fact that they are/will be throttling in a sense negates the abuse in terms of total bytes and questions the very need of the BW cap to begin with. 

Having studied my BW usage in a house of 3 avid computer users since last year, last month we topped out around 130GB after doing a bunch of software updating around the house. We didn't download tons of movies, we didn't watch Hulu 24/7. We installed some new games and updated a lot of software. Although 10GB did in fact go towards one of the 5 movies I did purchase online at the end of the month and had a heck of a time getting to successfully transfer. (The movie was 1.4GB and typically failed around the 1GB mark.) 

Just standard use from a household with more than a single device communicating with the internet at any given moment.

This is the future. I see 250GB being a fraction of the usage of tomorrow.

-Ben

 [ And note that some major U.S. ISPs are reportedly planning or implementing 
   bandwidth/usage caps *much* lower than 250 GB/mo.

        -- Lauren Weinstein
           NNSquad Moderator ]


--
Ben Kamen - O.D.T., S.P.
=============================================================================
Email: bkamen AT benjammin DOT net              Web: http://www.benjammin.net

As seen somewhere on the net: My other computer is your Windows Server.