Cogent admits to QoSing down streaming

Thu Nov 6 22:44:02 UTC 2014

On Thu, 6 Nov 2014, Blake Hudson wrote:

> Owen, should providers be able to over subscribe their networks? If so, at 
> what tier level (tier 1, 2, 3, residential ISP)? Is it acceptable for a 
> provider to permit frequent congestion if they choose to? Or should they be 
> forced to take action that may (potentially) lead to increased customer rates 
> or reduced customer bandwidth?

Tier levels are marketing terms - irrelevant to technical/operational 
discussions.

Every provider oversubscribes to some level, whether they're in the last 
mile serving residential users, or a carrier of carriers.  It's just a 
question of what amount of oversubscription is acceptable, and what the 
risks are when customers blow that oversubscription model out of the 
water, either in the short term (streaming major sporting events, etc), or 
in the longer term (increased prevalence of streaming video, rich content, 
etc).  Congestion due to short-term spikes is often seen as an acceptable 
risk.  Congestion due to long-term shifts in customer network usage habits 
requires the oversubscription model to be re-worked, or the provider (and 
by extension... their customers) accepts a reputation of not dealing 
proactively with congestion.

jms