dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
1422

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena to david13579

Premium Member

to david13579

Re: Is the "16 channel = less congestion" thing significant enough to

If you don't expect to need more then 100 Mbps for the next 2 years, go with the 6141.

DOCSIS 3.1 modems are probably going to be released to the public in early 2016 (with ISP's probably able to lease them to customers in late 2015), so if you can wait till 2016, I'd go with the 6141 now.

If you expect to upgrade to 200 or 300 Mbps in the next 2-3 years, and maybe NOT expect to upgrade to 1 Gbps after DOCSIS 3.1 is released, get the 6183.
jack584
join:2014-07-07

jack584

Member

You think TWC will upgrade to 24x8 on DOCSIS 3.0, or skip ahead to DOCSIS 3.1, leaving 16x4 the last upgrade for 3.0?

I suppose they could upgrade to 500 Mbps on DOCSIS 3.0 if they upgraded to 24x8, but it would be a stretch considering TWC only provisions 20 Mbps per channel I believe, and 24 channels x 20 Mbps=480 Mbps, plus the 10% over provisioning (correct me if I'm wrong on that, I had heard somewhere that it was 10%) would mean that TWC would have to provision more than 20 Mbps per channel to get 500 Mbps on a 24 channel modem.
jpatton1979
join:2011-08-10
Louisville, KY

jpatton1979

Member

TWC doesn't provision channel speeds. They only specify which config files can be applied to particular modems. That's why the SB6121 is limited to 50/5, SB6141 is limited to 100/10, etc.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

4 edits

Packeteers

Premium Member

said by jpatton1979:

why the SB6121 is limited to 50/5, SB6141 is limited to 100/10

21 is 4:4 while 41 is 8:4 - this is why.

all this channel talk is nonsense anyway. it won't improve your online experience unless you have a lot of people/devices in the house using the same isp simultaneously. it's similar with cores in a cpu - most software is still stuck using 2 cores, so 8 cores is of little benefit unless you do a lot more stuff at the same time. so for one person on one device to load balance his isp use across 8 or 16 channels does little more than improve latency imperceptibly while his speed will remain the same since that is determined by the entire internet between him and the host, not whatever his last mile segment provisioning may be. this may be why netflix rates wired(fiber coax adsl) isp's without making any further distinction between what kind of channel:speed service each one provides at the last mile.
jpatton1979
join:2011-08-10
Louisville, KY
Pace 5268AC
Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-PRO

jpatton1979

Member

said by Packeteers:

21 is 4:4 while 41 is 8:4 - this is why.

Yes, TWC chose to limit the 6121 to 50/5 because it's 4x4 and the 6141 to 100/5 because it's 8x4. My point was that they are able to limit those speeds by the config file the modem gets, not by controlling channel speed.
said by Packeteers:

all this channel talk is nonsense anyway. it won't improve your online experience unless you have a lot of people/devices in the house using the same isp simultaneously...

That might be accurate if every endpoint had its own node. Since you have multiple endpoints sharing a node you need to spread the load across as many channels as possible to prevent congestion. Congestion definitely affects speed as well as latency.
david13579
join:2008-01-10
Astoria, NY

david13579

Member

said by jpatton1979:

That might be accurate if every endpoint had its own node. Since you have multiple endpoints sharing a node you need to spread the load across as many channels as possible to prevent congestion. Congestion definitely affects speed as well as latency.

But is it significant? My 50mbps connection sometimes gets down to 40-42 but I dont really mind that so far. Considering that here we either have TWC, Verizon DLS or some LTE providers, I doubt any significant number of new people will Join TWC any time soon but I dont want to regret it later if for some reason it gets too congested on 8 channels.

The modem I have from TWC currently is 8 channels, btw.
jpatton1979
join:2011-08-10
Louisville, KY
Pace 5268AC
Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-PRO

jpatton1979

Member

If you don't mind then it's probably not significant to you. If you were to ask someone who's paying for 50Mbps but getting less than 10Mbps I would say it's probably significant to them.

I will echo the sentiment of others. If you don't plan on going over 100Mbps you *should* probably be fine with the SB6141.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx to david13579

Premium Member

to david13579

But is it significant? My 50mbps connection sometimes gets down to 40-42 but I dont really mind that so far. Considering that here we either have TWC, Verizon DLS or some LTE providers, I doubt any significant number of new people will Join TWC any time soon but I dont want to regret it later if for some reason it gets too congested on 8 channels.

If you're going to obsess over what performance you might be missing every time your connection dips below optimal, just buy 6183 and don't look back. Chances are it's not going to matter much, if at all, but a little peace of mind is priceless.