Observations of an Internet Middleman (Level3)

Thu May 15 16:49:14 UTC 2014

Kevin first thank you for posting to NANOG to help with the issues...not
every day we see Comcast executive on engineering mailing lists. *LOL*

I have two issues with the comments:

1. You mention that congestion issues to Comcast peers are temporary.  I
notice AS6543 "Tata Communication" - major backbone provider to my home
country - very very congested for over three years.  Will your engineers
kindly update the connection as priority?

2. You mention that all packets treated equally - no games.  Why does
AS7922 assign the speed test different DSCP from regular internet
connection?

Arvinder S.

> This is a smart group. If if that was true I think every internet site /
> service one visits from home would be a negatively impacted.  That is not
> the case
>
> As I said before, Comcast also has over 40 balanced peers with plenty of
> capacity.  Wholesale $$ are very small, highly competitive and only "skin
> in the game" to promote efficiencies
>
>       - Kevin
>
>
>> On May 15, 2014, at 12:01 PM, "Jared Mauch" <jared at puck.nether.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> On May 15, 2014, at 11:50 AM, McElearney, Kevin
>>> <Kevin_McElearney at cable.comcast.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> There is no gaming on measurements and disputes are isolated and
>>> temporary with issues not unique over the history of the internet.  I
>>> think all the same rhetorical quotes continue to be reused
>>
>> Kevin,
>>
>> in the past most issues were transient for a few months as both sides
>> got complaints, but while at RIPE earlier this week someone commented to
>> me: there's no one provider you can buy access from to get a packet-loss
>> free connection to all their other business partners/customers.  This
>> hurts the entire marketplace when there is persistent congestion.
>>
>> Some of these issues are related to (as Craig called them) "Hypergiants"
>> (OTT) but others are due to providers having poor capital models so they
>> don't have "budget" for upgrading unless someone pays for that upgrade,
>> vs seeing their existing customer base as that source for the capital.
>>
>> As an engineer, I'm hopeful that those responsible for budgeting will do
>> the right thing.  As a greedy capitalist, please pay me more $$$.  It
>> does feel a bit like tic-tac-toe with zero players in wargames though,
>> the only way to win is to not play [games].
>>
>> - Jared
>>
>