iOS 7 update traffic

Thu Sep 19 21:50:19 UTC 2013

On Sep 19, 2013, at 14:11, Warren Bailey
<wbailey at satelliteintelligencegroup.com> wrote:

> I don't see how operators could tolerate this, honestly. I can't think of
a single provider who does not oversubscribe their access platform... Which
leads me to this question :

Over-subscription is a business decision that every network has to make,
it's a fact of life for any operator.   When you are oversubscribing, you
also need to take into consideration on how much you're getting yourself
overleveraged in such a configuration for sudden events like this.
Oversubscription is a routine process in capacity planning, which is not
something you just set it and forget it, then get pissed off at Apple or any
other content provider during a sudden upsurge of traffic.

> Why does apple feel it is okay to send every mobile device an update on a
single day?

Your customers/consumers have purchased a product (internet access) from you
based on what you've offered.  Whether you've oversubscribed or
undersubscribed your network in delivering that service is your problem as a
network operator, and your problem to deal with.  Why should Apple care?

Let's turn this question around:  why should your customers think it's ok
for network operators to irresponsibly increase their profit margins through
egregious over-subscriptions and idiotic capacity planning?  How is it
Apple, content provider or your consumer's problem that your network can't
deliver the bits at times when it needs to?  As a network providing service,
it's your problem to deal with capacity issues -- you've sold a product with
specified speed levels to your subscribers, and you've made a bet on
oversubscribing.  Suddenly the subscriber wants to use what he previously
paid for and now it's a problem?

> Never mind the fact that we are we ones on the last mile responsible for
getting it to their customers, 1gb per sub is pretty serious.. Why are they
not caching at their head ends, dslams, etc?

Apple delivers their content through Akamai.  As a last mile provider
responsible for delivering content to your customers, you should check:
http://www.akamai.com/html/partners/network_program.html

james