iOS 7 update traffic

Thu Sep 19 18:45:44 UTC 2013

On Thu, 19 Sep 2013, Warren Bailey wrote:

> I'm trying to highlight a point that not 
> all of us have studly 1gbps connections to Akamai. Some of us have to 
> move data into orbit and back.. Some of us are not like the rest of you. 
> These types of situations should not happen in general.. We live in the 
> future. This is like sending a bulk fax to every user on a switch, and 
> when the other users get busy signals I somehow need to realign my view 
> of reality.

I suspect that Apple and others did not take the latency and bandwidth 
limitations of satellite Internet access into account when developing 
their software distribution model - if they took such things into account 
at all.  If I had to guess, they probably used basic DSL, cable modem, or 
4G LTE service as their lowest common denominator.  I would guess their 
assumption is that the vast majority of people who own iThings have an 
equivalent kind of Internet connection at their disposal.  I'm not saying 
that's right or wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's their 
thought process.

I fully understand that it's very difficult and expensive to evolve the 
orbiting pieces of your network to get more bandwidth.  Designing, 
building, flying, and operating a new bird is obscenely expensive. 
Higher data rates impose limitations of their own, re: rain fade, etc, 
plus the CPE might need to be replaced.

> A single Internet point or software update should not cause all of this 
> discussion. You guys are collectively posting hundreds of gbps for 
> basically a single software update, and comparing it to point releases 
> from vendors.

What happened is not an unprecedented occurrence.  I used to work at an 
ISP, and I remember our customers crushing our pipes during an infamous 
Victoria's Secret webcast many moons ago.  Many websites for major news 
outlets seized up on 9/11 because they couldn't handle the number of 
requests that were coming in.  Joe Schmoe's website blows up because 
he was featured in an article on Slashdot.  That was before the days when 
geographically dispersed content distribution became commonplace and 
websites weren't nearly as content-heavy as they are today.

> Why do I feel like many of you are spoiled with all of this cheap and 
> fast bandwidth? Do you guys not remember your 9600bps modem?

I won't disagree (happy with my fios service, other than the complete 
inability to get a straight answer from anyone in charge re: when IPv6 
will be available in my area but that's a topic for another thread), and 
yes, I do remember 9600 bps modems.  I started at 1200 bps, and my first 
reaction when I got a 2400 bps modem was 'Holy crap is this fast!' ;)  For 
some reason, I recall the jump from 2400 to 14400 'feeling' somewhat less 
awe-inspiring.

> Many of you would have suffered heart failure if I sent you a 100mb 
> file only 10 years ago. Keep that in mind.. Not everyone has their 
> Internet coming off the end of an sfp.

I didn't have a hard drive with enough space to store 100 MB of anything 
at that point ;)

jms