symmetric vs. asymmetric [was: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality]

Thu Apr 23 14:09:35 UTC 2015

There's an op-ed piece in this posting, Ray. Do you want to write it, or should I?

:-)

On April 23, 2015 10:06:42 AM EDT, Ray Soucy <rps at maine.edu> wrote:
>It's amazing, really.
>
>Netflix and YouTube now overtake BitTorrent and all other file sharing
>peer-to-peer traffic combined, even on academic networks, by order(s)
>of
>magnitude.  The amount of peer-to-peer traffic is not even significant
>in
>comparison.  It might as well be IRC from our perspective.
>
>Internet usage habits have shifted quite a bit in the past decade.  I
>think
>the takeaway is that if you provide content in a way that is fairly
>priced
>and convenient to access (e.g. DRM doesn't get in your way), most
>people
>will opt for the legal route.  Something we were trying to explain to
>the
>MPAA and RIAA years ago when they shoved the DMCA down our throats.
>
>I'm certainly in favor of symmetrical service.  I think there is a
>widely
>held myth that DOS attacks will take down the Internet when everyone
>has
>more bandwidth.  The fact is that DOS attacks are a problem regardless
>of
>bandwidth, and throttling people isn't a solution.  The other (somewhat
>insulting) argument that people will use greater upload speeds for
>illegal
>activity is pretty bogus as well.
>
>The limit on upload bandwidth for most people is a roadblock to a lot
>of
>the services that people will take for granted a decade from now; cloud
>backup, residential video surveillance over IP, peer-to-peer high
>definition video conferencing.  And likely a lot of things that we
>haven't
>imagined yet.
>
>As funny as it sounds, I think Twitch (streaming video games) has been
>the
>application that has made the younger generation care about their
>upload
>speed more than anything else.  They now have a use case where their
>limited upload is a real problem for them, and when they find out their
>ISP
>can't provide anything good enough they get pretty upset about it.
>
>
>
>
>
>On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 6:02 PM, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: "Frank Bulk" <frnkblk at iname.com>
>>
>> > Those are measured at the campus boundary. I don't have visibility
>inside
>> > the school's network to know who much intra-campus traffic there
>may be .
>> > but we know that peer-to-peer is a small percentage of overall
>Internet
>> > traffic flows, and streaming video remains the largets.
>>
>> BitTorrent makes special efforts to keep as much traffic local as
>possible,
>> I understand; that probably isn't too helpful... except at scales
>like that
>> on a resnet at a sizable campus.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> -- jra
>> --
>> Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink
>> jra at baylink.com
>> Designer                     The Things I Think                      
>RFC
>> 2100
>> Ashworth & Associates       http://www.bcp38.info          2000 Land
>> Rover DII
>> St Petersburg FL USA      BCP38: Ask For It By Name!           +1 727
>647
>> 1274
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>Ray Patrick Soucy
>Network Engineer
>University of Maine System
>
>T: 207-561-3526
>F: 207-561-3531
>
>MaineREN, Maine's Research and Education Network
>www.maineren.net

-- 
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