95th Percentile != Lame

Mon Jun 4 02:42:13 UTC 2001

> I still fail to see how "peak bits" or "bursted bits" are more expensive
> than "regular bits".  A 100Mbit FE port costs whatever it costs, and does
> not fluctuate with usage.  This is true of almost all of your links within
> the network - excluding those where you have negotiated usage-based
> billing.  An OC3, point to point, costs as much as it costs irrelevant of
> its usage.  Therefore, every bit that crosses this circuit has a cost. 
> 
> Why not simply pass this cost on to the customer bit for bit? 

It is NOT that the each bit has the same cost - it is the cost of
maintaining enough EXTRA bandwidth so that the downstreams do not bounce
up against the ceiling. That amount is basically covered by using the 95
rule.