Neutral Net Needs Twice the Bandwidth of Tiered 271
berberine writes with a link to Ars Technica, straight to an article discussing the differences between a net neutral internet and one that supports tiers of content. As you might imagine, our neutral internet is far more bandwidth-intensive; AT&T estimates it might require as much as twice the bandwidth of a tiered internet. From the article: "Corporate sponsorship of research doesn't automatically invalidate that research; what's needed is a close look at the actual results to determine if they were done correctly. According to David Isenberg, a long-time industry insider and proponent of 'dumb' (neutral) networks, the research itself is fine. In his view, it's simply obvious that a dumb network will require more peak capacity than a managed one. But extending that banal observation to make the claim that running a managed network is cheaper is, to Isenberg, not at all intuitive. For one thing, doubling the peak volume of a network does not mean spending twice as much money as it cost to build the original network."
Re:And (Score:5, Interesting)
The question is: How do we decide what traffic is more important on the Internet? Who pays? Who pays more? That's stupid. The benefits of a a free and open Internet far outweigh the inefficiencies of working with a basically unmanaged network. (Not that the Internet actually is completely unmanaged -- that's just not true. ISPs shape traffic on their own networks to improve customer connectivity to mail or webservers within the ISP's own network). The point of the Internet is to have a network where anything is possible. Tier it off and you'll make it about as useful as the television networks.
... And so what? (Score:1, Interesting)
Bandwidth (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine if you had a tree that bore fruit once or twice a day. But if you did not eat the fruit within an hour, it spoiled. There's no point in trying to conserve the fruit unless your demand is higher than the output of the tree.
Its always good to have say, 10% free. Out of ten fruit, leave one so that any surprise visitors might have a quick snack as well.
Of course, the other reason you might try to conserve it is to create artificial demand. Now, half of your crop goes to waste. You sell the other half for very high prices saying that your supply just can't keep up with demand and that you must sell them at a higher price due to the whole free market thing.
Point is, every fruit you don't sell will be useless in an hour. But its better to let a fruit rot than to sell it for a decent price, after all.
Bill Microsoft for malware traffic then (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're going to start being stingy about bandwidth I suggest network providers bill Microsoft until their tire fires are put out.
The problem with free market and the internet. (Score:3, Interesting)
3 ge-5-4-ur01.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net (68.87.170.161) 9.116 ms 9.247 ms *
4 te-9-4-ar01.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net (68.87.170.9) 9.021 ms * 9.210 ms
5 12.116.47.117 (12.116.47.117) 19.295 ms 20.255 ms 19.232 ms
6 tbr1.dvmco.ip.att.net (12.122.86.250) 46.279 ms 46.672 ms 45.820 ms
7 tbr2.sffca.ip.att.net (12.122.12.133) 45.180 ms 45.821 ms 45.441 ms
8 ggr3.sffca.ip.att.net (12.122.82.149) 47.504 ms 47.508 ms 47.932 ms
9 att-gw.sanfran.level3.net (192.205.33.82) 167.304 ms 48.359 ms 45.286 ms
10 vlan69.csw1.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.68.18.62) 57.119 ms 49.613 ms 52.738 ms
I also point out that we already have a tiered network. so many MB/s costs so many dollars. Both for the provider *and* the consumer. AT&T is trying to make companies pay *again*. This shouldn't need more laws. This should be classified as extortion.
That said, I'm wary of net neutrality laws, Because from my understanding, the network is already managed. One of the local ISPs CEO did an interview in Wired, where he talked about how his company was already giving priority, based on what customers demanded and what needed the priority most. (VOIP service for example, gets high priority because disruption there matters more than elsewhere.)
This doesn't mean we shouldn't have net neutrality laws, Just that we need to be very careful about writing them, so that legitimate (non extortion) methods can still be used.*
*Though while we're at it, I wouldn't mind seeing it made illegal for college campuses to restrict how dorm students use their internet. There's really no excuse for cutting off somebodies access to communication (IRC is usually the first thing to get hit with idiotic security policies). And from my experience, dorms not only qualify as a monopoly ISP, but typically a mandatory monopoly as well. (I've even seen colleges, public ones, that require freshman to live in the dorms.)
Re:And (Score:4, Interesting)
Going between cities is where trains are the most useful. Moving about inside, or around, a city is where the highways are most needed. Rural areas, and there a lot of them in most every country, still need highways nearly all travel.
The unmanaged system of highways allows for all of the same things as trains, though less efficiently, but also allows for *substantially* more freedom of movement and independence of travel time. The right answer, as it always has been, is to use both.
BTW - it isn't just Amtrak that has problems in the US. Nearly all public transit systems are doing their best to approach complete uselessness. It is still faster and less expensive, for me to own, insure, and operate a car where I live than it is to use public transit. This is in metrowest Massachusetts, for reference. NYC is better, but the subway is still no picnic, and light rail can be hell there, too, but it's still a lot better than driving, usually.
For what it's worth, if rail was the better option in the US, business would use it more. As it turns out, you get more for your money by moving things around with trucks and planes. Transit times are much lower, and you can deal with changes in volume and the need to reroute things much more easily.
Multicast (Score:5, Interesting)
Two teirs = two separate pipes (Score:4, Interesting)
If you want a practical example of precisely how they they plan to violate network neutrality look at the DOCSIS 3.0 spec. It reserves about 80% of the bandwidth on the coaxial cable for video and telephone services that are exclusively provided by the cable company (i.e. no one else is allowed on). The other 20% of the bandwidth is provided as general Internet access (with the usual limited upload speed). This way they can be the gatekeeper for high-bandwidth content (i.e. video) and low-latency applications (i.e. VoIP) while every other business that wants access to their customers has to either pay to get on their high-speed channels or get stuck with the slow lane.
The telephone companies are already rolling out technologies that divide up fiber connections in a similar fashion. The "big plan" is to get paid extra for that exclusive, high-speed and low-latency channel into people's homes. It is a hugely anti-competitive situation.
If you provide streaming video to anyone on the Internet you will not be able to compete with the speed and quality of the video coming over Comcast's, AT&T's, and Verizon's dedicated pipes. If you're a VoIP provider that provides telephone service to anyone on the Internet you will not be able to compete with the low-latency and high quality of the big ISP's dedicated pipes. If you provide *any* service over the Internet all it will take for you to be crushed out of existence is for the big ISPs to start offering the same service on their dedicated, exclusive channels.
It isn't about prioritizing traffic. It is about dividing it up and destroying the free market that is Internet access in people's homes. It is literally "divide and conquer".
Let them have it (Score:2, Interesting)
Web 2.0 has shown common folk the value of the internet as a democratic medium. It won't be so easy for the big guys to take it away anymore.
Re:And (Score:3, Interesting)
AT&T sees it as a way to increase their profits, In other words, unless we boycott them, we sponsor their waste of money...
Perhaps now, any see why we could do better as an "Internet" without the largest players, at least until they're properly leashed?