[175879] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Cogent admits to QoSing down streaming
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jared Mauch)
Thu Nov 6 11:24:07 2014
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Jared Mauch <jared@puck.nether.net>
In-Reply-To: <D14544C8-7522-4CE3-BC3A-369CD2C03895@ianai.net>
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2014 11:23:51 -0500
To: Patrick Gilmore <patrick@ianai.net>
Cc: NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
> On Nov 6, 2014, at 11:12 AM, Patrick W. Gilmore <patrick@ianai.net> =
wrote:
>=20
> =
<http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/11/cogent-now-admits-slowed-netflixs-=
traffic-creating-fast-lane-slow-lane.html>
>=20
> This is interesting. And it will be detrimental to network neutrality =
supporters. Cogent admits that while they were publicly complaining =
about other networks congesting links, they were using QoS to make the =
problem look worse.
>=20
> One of the problems in "tech" is most people do not realize tone is =
important, not just substance. There was - still is! - congestion in =
many places where consumers have one or at most two choice of providers. =
Even in places where there are two providers, both are frequently =
congested. Instead of discussing the fact there is no functioning =
market, no choice for the average end user, and how to fix it, we will =
now spend a ton of time arguing whether anything is wrong at all because =
Cogent did this.
>=20
> Wouldn't you rather be discussing whether 4 Mbps is really broadband? =
(Anyone else have flashbacks to "640K is enough for anyone!"?) Or how =
many people have more than one choice at 25 Mbps? Or whether a company =
with a terminating access monopoly can intentionally congest its edge to =
charge monopoly rents on the content providers their paying customers =
are trying to access? I know I would.
>=20
> Instead, we'll be talking about how things are not really bad, Cogent =
just made it look bad on purpose. The subtlety of "it _IS_ bad, Cogent =
just shifted some of the burden from VoIP to streaming" is not something =
that plays well in a 30 second sound bite, or at congressional hearings.
>=20
> It's enough to make one consider giving up the idea of having a =
functioning, useful Internet.
Network SLAs are usually on-net. Deciding how to queue packets down a =
congested link is certainly something many places have done for years, =
including when people did Random Early Discard(RED), Weighted RED or =
even more advanced AQM when there may be one-way congestion (Eg: =
cable/dsl uplink) at the home.
Some people are trying to document/improve this with ideas, such as: =
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hoeiland-joergensen-aqm-fq-codel
As a technical issue I always want to see congestion addressed promptly =
with either changes in the traffic pattern or network upgrades. If you =
have customers on a fixed monthly plan regardless of usage and your =
capital model doesn=E2=80=99t address that, or you hide the network =
costs in other =E2=80=98bundles=E2=80=99 it may become harder to do the =
accounting necessary to fund those upgrades. I do wish it were easier =
to get symmetric speeds on DOCSIS/xDSL technologies.
- Jared=
