COVID-19 vs. our Networks

Fri Mar 20 14:53:37 UTC 2020

Citing 25M may be a bit of a stretch since A) 4k is reserved for ISPs 
with a local cache (last time I checked), B) many (most?) Netflix 
customers are not on 4k equipment, C) 4k requires a premium subscription 
to Netflix at additional cost that not all customers have, D) the 
customer must have ~25M or above service and not be experiencing 
congestion on the path between the local Netflix cache and the 
customer's equipment, and E) if even one of the above is not true the 
Netflix user will typically receive a 3-5Mbps stream, depending on the 
device and connection performance.

On the networks I monitor, forcing a ~3Mbps or lower Netflix stream 
would have the effect of lowing the peak rate in the high demand hour, 
wasting available equipment and capacity. It would not have the effect 
of  improving VPN, VoIP, or video conferencing performance during the 
hours that those applications are typically used and I would wager that 
it would not have an appreciable effect on those applications even 
during peak usage periods. If there were a WiFi or similar issue within 
a specific household, the best way to address that is within the 
household (either turning off unneeded devices, moving high demand 
devices closer to the AP or wiring them, or upgrading to current WiFi 
technology).

--Blake

On 3/20/2020 9:15 AM, Mike Hammett wrote:
> It's one of those most important things that matters.
>
> The end user likely won't notice the difference between 4k and 720p. 
> They also aren't likely to notice the transition from one to the other.
>
> The person on the VPN, VoIP call, video conference, video game, etc. 
> will very much notice the congested link, even if it's only a few seconds.
>
>
> Yes, Netflix video is very efficient, if not the most efficient. 
> They're also one of if not the largest slingers of bits on the 
> Internet. Small changes in usage of such a huge player totally eclipse 
> most other usages on the Internet.
>
> https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306
>
> Netflix recommends 25 megs for Ultra HD, while only 5 megs for HD. 
> That's a 5x difference in something people likely won't notice and 
> would make a big difference on the additional VPN, VoIP, video 
> conferencing, etc.
>
>
>
> -----
> Mike Hammett
> Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/>
> <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL><https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb><https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions><https://twitter.com/ICSIL>
> Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/>
> <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix><https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange><https://twitter.com/mdwestix>
> The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/>
> <https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp><https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *"Blake Hudson" <blake at ispn.net>
> *To: *nanog at nanog.org
> *Sent: *Friday, March 20, 2020 9:01:18 AM
> *Subject: *Re: COVID-19 vs. our Networks
>
> Yes, but does that matter? If there's extra capacity on the link, 
> Netflix runs at full rate. If there is not extra capacity Netflix 
> rates down to prevent congestion. While streaming video (including 
> Netflix) uses a lot of bandwidth, I don't see Netflix causing 
> congestion. It gets a bad wrap, and I think that's unfair because 
> Netflix is actually really efficient and really conscientious compared 
> to others.
>
> On 3/20/2020 8:52 AM, Mike Hammett wrote:
>
>     Some of the pipes Netflix goes through is also used by other
>     services that aren't as adaptable.
>
>
>
>     -----
>     Mike Hammett
>     Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/>
>     <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL><https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb><https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions><https://twitter.com/ICSIL>
>     Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/>
>     <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix><https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange><https://twitter.com/mdwestix>
>     The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/>
>     <https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp><https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *From: *"Blake Hudson" <blake at ispn.net>
>     *To: *nanog at nanog.org
>     *Sent: *Friday, March 20, 2020 8:32:45 AM
>     *Subject: *Re: COVID-19 vs. our Networks
>
>
>     On 3/19/2020 12:22 PM, Mark Tinka wrote:
>     >
>     > On 19/Mar/20 18:07, Matt Hoppes wrote:
>     >> Agreed... 720 or 1080 Netflix will work just as fine as 4K for the
>     >> next month or two.
>     > Well, the article claims "Drop stream quality from HD". That
>     means 4K,
>     > 1080p and 720p.
>     >
>     > If you have an OCA on your network, how does this encourage
>     consumers to
>     > use the "extra bandwidth" for anything else?
>     >
>     > Are we assuming we know how consumers want to spend their time now?
>     >
>     > Mark.
>
>     Across several eyeball networks I'm not seeing any noticeable
>     increase
>     in peak (95%) demand between now and January. Since Netflix
>     automatically scales down data rates in the event of congestion, the
>     only thing I foresee forcing Netflix to reduce data rates [ahead
>     of any
>     congestion] would accomplish is causing excess link capacity to go
>     unused (wasted). This sounds like a policy decision made without a
>     technical argument... e.g. not a data driven decision, but a decision
>     made out of fear or panic.
>
>
>
>

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