The Secret World of Bandwidth

Do you know how fast your Internet connection is? If you believe the hype on TV, DSL is a zillion times faster than dial-up and FiOS is a zillion times faster than DSL and Cable modems rock because of the triple play, blah, blah, blah.

But what do you really know about your broadband connection to the outside world? Does is take all night to upload a big flash memory card's worth of photos to Kodak Easy Share? Do you have a static IP address? Can you access the files on your desktop computer from off premises? How quickly can you upload your files to an online back-up service? Can you join a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and be a valuable node? Can you share a legally purchased movie file with yourself through a P2P service in the amount of time you would expect it to take based upon your ISP's specifications? Welcome to the secret world of bandwidth. It's a covert place where the dark arts of traffic shaping and bandwidth throttling are usually hidden from view.

But last week, the Associated Press reported that Comcast was "actively interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers." The report went on to say that, "The AP also found that Comcast's computers masqueraded as those of its users to interrupt file-sharing connections." Initially, Comcast denied everything. But just a few days ago, Mitch Bowling, senior vice president of Comcast Online Services, backtracked a little, saying: "During periods of heavy peer-to-peer congestion, which can degrade the experience for all customers, we use several network management technologies that, when necessary, enable us to delay - not block - some peer-to-peer traffic. However, the peer-to-peer transaction will eventually be completed as requested."

As you can imagine, the blogosphere has exploded with pundits and commenters crying foul. Internet watchdog groups were up in arms denouncing Comcast's actions and conspiracy theorists everywhere were positing that other cable companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were doing exactly the same thing.

"This is exactly what Net Neutrality legislation is all about," said one very disgruntled lobbyist. "All Internet traffic is supposed to be treated equally!" Perhaps, but Net Neutrality is not yet a law and, considering how powerful the lobbyists are on both sides of this issue, it may never be.

So, without getting too technical -- is there a smoking gun? If there is, it may be in the form of a publicly traded company called Sandvine Corp. (SVC.TO). A quick browse through their published financial documents and investor materials show the company bragging about having "eight of the top 20 broadband service providers in the US" as customers.

What do Sandvine's applications do? In a perfect world, they help big ISP's efficiently and profitably manage their Internet traffic. However, in the hands of an anti-P2P Auror, the software can forge TCP RST packets that cause Internet connections to drop. This technique is regularly used in mainland China to facilitate Internet censorship. Simply put, the system sends a message that fools computers into thinking that the peer they are connecting to doesn't want to continue the connection. Where is Mad-eye Moody when you really need him?

What this means in the long run is unclear. But here are a few things to think about. ISP's can sort out and route traffic as they see fit. This means that a 911 call over a VoIP system (Voice over Internet Protocol) can be differentiated from the outgoing traffic your teenager is sending from his XBox Live session and the photos you are simultaneously uploading to Flickr. At first, this seems like a very good thing. You would not want the call to EMS delayed because you are about to find out what happened to Master Chief. On the other hand, if you can sort out one kind of traffic, it means that you can sort out other kinds of traffic as well.

As I love to say, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. In practice, your ISP completely controls what you can do with the bandwidth you think you are paying for. On paper, my home broadband connection is 10 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. In practice, due to contention and network congestion, it is never anywhere near that fast. In reality, the speeds I see on my bandwidth meter have nothing to do with the speed at which the data I send will travel around the Internet -- that's up to my ISP.

The AP story about Comcast is interesting, but it's just the beginning of a fascinating journey we are all about to take into the secret world of bandwidth. With new wired and wireless broadband choices coming to market everyday, it won't be long before consumers force this issue into the open. In the mean time, if you're having a little trouble with your broadband connectivity -- call your ISP and ask some very hard questions. The answers may surprise you.

Shelly Palmer is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2006, Focal Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy Awards). He is the Vice-Chairman of the National Academy of Media Arts & Sciences an organization dedicated to education and leadership in the areas of technology, media and entertainment. Palmer also oversees the Advanced Media Technology Emmy Awards which honors outstanding achievements in the science and technology of advanced media. You can read Shelly's blog here. Shelly can be reached at [e-mail]

Follow Shelly Palmer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@shelly_palmer

Comments

[Guitarsandmore]

I would suspect that the Comcast network is a bus or ring technology that everyone in your neighborhood shares. I can send email over a 10Mbit Ethernet connection at the same time my neighbor does and neither of us would know the difference. When the entire neighborhood starts downloading huge files the network will slow. ( video, streaming shows, etc).

DSL is a direct connection to the C.O. Your connection is your own and you don’t share it with anyone. The sharing could come later at the ISP where they are trying to make some money sending a million users down the same pipe at the same time. And at the host end.

Maybe the 405 should be wider.

[Guitarsandmore]

*
Voice is always given higher priority over the internet. Voice over IP (Voip) needs Quality of Service with low latency (180msec end to end) in order to provide a real time conversation that seems normal and natural. Anything less would not be acceptable to the public and so Voip would not be seen as an improvement but quite accurately as a step backwards. So, yes voice needs to get the high priority queue.

I would bet there needs to be some level of traffic shaping to make sure the network doesn’t crash. If you were an ISP what would you rather have – a million users paying 29.95 who only use email once in a while or 100 users paying 29.95 that are sending a set of encyclopedias over the internet every 5 minutes?

Are you going to tell me the 405 freeway needs to be made wide enough for every car in America to drive on all at the same time? Are we trying to get ready for a quick get away then, all of us at once?
****

[realitytrumpsbull]

Yeah yeah, so Ma Bell's still listening to
our phone calls, now reading our email, are
they at least taking good notes? Never know,
might end up seeing the viral spread of
democracy, resurgence of people voting,
stuff like that...saves a lot of sweat
steaming open envelopes down at the post office,
anyway, man, that sure was a lot of work...

[eplebneesta]

1) Does is take all night to upload a big flash memory card's...
No.

2) Do you have a static IP address?
No, but I run a cron job that checks to see if my IP has changed and then emails the new address to places from where I need to access my home box.

3) Can you access the files on your desktop computer from off premises?
Yes. I've punched holes in my H/W firewall and in my iptables for ssh. Ssh allows me complete access to my computer, including use of GUI applications.

4) How quickly can you upload your files to an online back-up service?
I don't. I use a homegrown incremental backup to DVD. It backs up all of my unreproducable data and just metadata that can be used to rebuild my system. But I hope you backup to >1 site AND use serious encryption.

5) Can you join a P2P network and be a valuable node?
I don't use P2P because of security concerns.

6) Can you share a legally purchased movie file with yourself... your ISP's specifications?
See 5's answer. However I quite often get higher bandwidth that advertised when downloading from fast servers.

Sorry. I just had to geek out ;->

There is soooo much dark fiber out there, and bandwidth per fiber is increasing tremendously. It's getting high B/W to houses that's the bitch. The "last copper mile." And until that is overcome, we won't even put a dent in the potential B/W available on the backbone.

There's only one reason to charge for higher QOS: excessive profit. The ISP's bandwidth "problems" are likely due to their not upgrading their servers and routers to meet the customers' demands. Like when AOL refused to buy enough modems because it cut into their profits.

One more reason we need to stop the corporations from buying politicians.

E Pleb Neesta
GODISNOWHERE
Does Confession encourage sin?

Don't say Iraq war, say Bush's Authorization to Use Force (not War).
NEVER say surge, always say Bush's escalation.

[tomsthumb]

When they "actively interfere with file sharing" censorship is the next logical step. The power of the Internet is the open lines of communication; this will remove the power people now have.

[pennyfortheguy]

Thud! That was the sound of my jaw dropping. Shel', I admire your sentence structure and overall story construction. While on the road, I've had my WiFi throttled back and cutoff altogether by overzealous system administrators who've adjudged me as too greedily indulgent of their services. The two times where I've literally called 'em on it, I was informed that if their system detects a P2P file sharing service in use on my machine, they're able to discreetly squeeze me out or limit my transmissions. The majority of the time, I was accessing my machine at home with batch transfer speeds up to 1mbps.
Thanks for your excellent sleuthing there man.