25Mbps vs 4 Mbps

Mon Nov 19 15:19:14 UTC 2012

It's all about if the bandwidth is there to use.

I'm sure every youtube caching server has a connection which exceeds 
4Mb/s.

How does a faster connection help? It allows the video to fill the buffer 
faster. Allowing for smoother playback on less bandwidth consistent 
circuits. Do you need it really if your video source is under 4Mb/s? In a 
perfect scenario, No.

Now, That's youtube. Using Netflix as an example.

I can start streaming a movie. And it'll pull 50-60Mb/s for about 20 
seconds, And it's playing HD quality almost immediately. Where on a slower 
connection it may not switch to HD until its filled its buffer more.

Nick Olsen
Network Operations (855) FLSPEED  x106

----------------------------------------
 From: "Glen Kent" <glen.kent at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 10:04 AM
To: "nanog at nanog.org" <nanog at nanog.org>
Subject: 25Mbps vs 4 Mbps

Hi,

The service provider(s) pipe that takes all web traffic from my laptop to
the central servers (assume youtube) remain same whether i take a 4Mbps or
a 25Mbps connection from my service provider. This means that the internet
connection that i take from my service provider only affects the last mile
-- from my home network to my service providers first access router. Given
this, would one really see a 6 times improvement in a 25Mbps connection
over a 4Mbps connection?

I assume that the service providers rate limit the traffic much
more aggressively in a 4Mbps connection. But this would only matter if the
traffic from my youtube server is greater than 4Mbps, which i suspect 
would
be the case.

The question then is that how does going for a higher BW connection from
the service provider help?

Glen