Netflix Pondering Peer-to-Peer Technology For Streaming Video 114
An anonymous reader writes "The folks at Ars Technica have discovered evidence that Netflix is actively researching the possibility of using peer-to-peer technology to stream its videos to its customers. The evidence: a one-month old job listing seeking a software engineer with extensive experience developing and testing large-scale peer-to-peer systems. In addition: Netflix's admission of wanting to 'look at all kinds of routes.' A recent blog post by BitTorrent's CEO explains how, in a peer-to-peer architecture, 'Netflix traffic would no longer be coming from one or two places that are easy to block. Instead, it would be coming from everywhere, all at once; from addresses that were not easily identified as Netflix addresses — from addresses all across the Internet.'"
In other Netflix news, the company has "reached an agreement with three smaller cable companies that, for the first time, will let U.S. subscribers watch the streaming video service’s content as though it were an ordinary cable channel."
net neutrality... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm going to charge Netflix for the rights to transit my network.
Re:There goes my subscription (Score:2, Insightful)
60gb is inhumane. Why would you even bother with Netflix? $8 for a few hours of streaming?
Re:Oh! (Score:5, Insightful)
So now that the FCC drops net neutrality, Netflix is going to play ball with the ISPs? They've basically been DOSing the ISPs local loops for nearly a decade, blaming the ISPs and now they have the brilliant idea that maybe they should address the insane amount of bandwidth they're eating up? How much do you want to bet they stop being such assholes about peering agreements now as well? Maybe a client that caches data to? Who came up with these brilliant cost saving ideas?!?!
I don't think you understand how Netflix works -- they don't push movies over my broadband connection without permission. Instead, they send me content that I asked for -- which is the entire reason I have a high speed internet connection in the first place. If I wasn't watching streaming video, instead of a 25mbit cable internet connection, I'd have a 3 - 6mbit DSL connection for less cost.
If the cable company can't afford to handle the traffic with their infrastructure, then they ought to increase their rates. I'm happy to pay the cable company a fair price for internet service, but I don't want to pay it in hidden charges for all of the bandwidth heavy websites I use, I want to see exactly how much internet service costs so I can shop around to different providers and to make it more likely that a competitor will step in as the price of service increases.
They've basically been DOSing the ISPs local loops for nearly a decade
Why do you think the local loop was the bottle neck? Netflix speeds increased literally overnight after they paid Comcast to upgrade the internet connection at the peering points, no local loop upgrades needed.
Re:Oh! (Score:5, Insightful)
They've basically been DOSing the ISPs local loops for nearly a decade, blaming the ISPs
BULL, FUCKING, SHIT!!!
The ISPs customers paid for internet access. They sent out requests for packets and got them back in return as the internet is intended to work. Netflix did the exact same thing on their end of the pipe. Netflix and their consumers are NOT responsible for managing how their ISPs provide the service they've already PAID for. If the ISPs oversold capacity and delayed infrastructure improvements then that is their cross to bear.
Here's a simple thought experiment: If Netflix was replaced with 1000 independent video streaming sites producing the same aggregate volume of traffic would it be fair to single any one of them out to degrade service? Would it be fair to extort them all to double dip on both ends of the pipe? As a lazy ISP who would you then blame for your failure to provide the services your customers already paid you to provide?
Re:Oh! (Score:5, Insightful)